The Road Not Taken
by A. X. Zanier
Summary: To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.
1. where the roads diverge

Title: The Road Not Taken

Author: A. X. Zanier

Status: Complete

Rating: R (Language, violence, sexual situations, the usual)

Fandom: _ The Invisible Man_ (SciFi, 2000)

Disclaimer: a) The characters and basic story ideas of _The Invisible Man_ are the property of others including, but not limited to Matt Greenberg, Studios USA, Stu Segall Productions and NBC Universal. Any additional characters or story ideas are mine. I make no money from this intellectual exercise. b) This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any opinions or views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the author and are used for story-telling purposes only.

Sequel/Series: part of the AS altiverse

Timeline: Picks up where _Fallen_ ended.

Spoilers: Probably. Does it really matter after all these years?

Music: _Show Me What I'm Looking For_ by Carolina Liar

The Road Not Taken

_A slightly less famous Holmes once said, "I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving - we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." Now for the last few years I'd been drifting along with the tide that chance and my brother had flung me into, all the while wishing I had some control over exactly what shore I would crash upon. Well, now... now it was time to actually learn to sail._

_where the roads diverge_

_._

"What did you say?" Darien was certain he had heard wrong. He could have sworn Claire had just said she could remove the gland.

"She said you're free, ya lunkhead," that came from Alyx, who leaned against a stanchion in the Lab with a small smile playing across her lips. No other reaction, just that hint of a smile. And that... that made him think this might just be real and not some wish fulfillment dream, like so many others he'd had over the long months since he'd come to the Agency.

"When can you do it?" he asked; the first words he could think of in his stunned condition. He wasn't quite certain he believed this... this sudden change of events. Seriously, after all this time he was finally going to get the gland out of his head and his life back? It couldn't be possible. Not after so long. Surely, it had become a permanent resident in his cranium. He'd resigned himself to the situation months ago, regardless of anything the good Keeper might say.

Claire laughed, seemingly not at all put off about the, even in Darien's opinion, self-serving question. "A few weeks of prep work... How about Friday the fifteenth? You'll have to spend a month or so recovering-"

He didn't let her finish. Instead, he rushed over, scooped her up into a bear hug, spun her around, and kissed her soundly on the mouth. He'd been expecting a long-winded prevarication about having to run weeks, if not months of tests, not a simple straightforward answer. That, more than anything else convinced him this was really happening. That all he had to do was say _yes_ and the process would be set in motion and he'd be free of the gland in no time at all. What was... two months in the grand scheme of things, after all? He'd waited longer than that to pull off a choice job back in the day.

He set her down and turned to give Alyx the same treatment, only to discover her no longer standing in the room, much to his confusion. Certain she'd be just as thrilled as he to know that he'd no longer be forced to work at the Agency, forced to endure the madness, or any of the other less-than-fun side-effects of the gland. That he'd get the chance to be Darien Fawkes the man, instead of _the receptacle. _ Show her who he really _was_ as opposed to what Agency _forced_ him to be. Yet, she had vanished, the sound of the Lab door sliding shut the only sign of where she had gone.

He turned back to his Keeper, who stood there, hands clasped in front of her, hair mussed from his jubilation, face carefully neutral. "Claire?"

"I believe she skipped out of a meeting to be here," she answered with a tiny shrug of her shoulders, quite possibly not having any real idea why Alyx had bailed before the celebration had really begun.

Though he now understood exactly why she'd insisted he _wanted_ to come into work today. Even if Claire had held out until the very end of the day to spring the good news on him. Truthfully, if she'd done it first thing, Darien would have gotten nothing of value accomplished, and while the work hadn't been the most exciting - follow-up on several open and pending cases - it had been necessary, and he would have been bouncing off the walls and unable to get anything of value accomplished if given the news early in the day. 'Sides, now he could justify leaving and getting started with the celebrating.

"We can begin the prep work first thing tomorrow if you like," she suggested, making her way to one of the computer terminals and bringing up what looked like a calendar program.

He nodded, bouncing on his toes, not really wanting to deal with all the minutiae right now. He wanted to celebrate, take them all out to dinner... or drinks. Yeah, drinks sounded good, raise a toast of farewell on this chapter of his life and a second to the next. Then corner Alyx and drag her back to his place for some up close and personal celebrating. A little one on one time before she got dragged away on another job. Now that she was off the injured list, the bossman would surely put her back out into the field, and lately that meant nowhere near San Diego.

"Keep, can't we do this tomorrow," he all but whined. Okay, so maybe he whined a little. "I want to celebrate... with my friends." He sidled up behind her, but she didn't turn around until he placed his hands on her shoulders.

She sighed softly. "Yes, I suppose the details can wait," she said as she glanced over at the clock, which read five thirty-four in the afternoon. Probably earlier than she usually left on an average day, but he was pretty certain he could sway her.

"Please?" How often am I going to get news this good?"

"All right," she agreed. "I need to finish up a few things here... Meet at Herb's at seven? I'll bring Bobby." She cocked her head slightly to the side. "You'll need to pry Alyx from her meeting, I'm afraid I haven't an excuse good enough to rescue her from this one."

His eyebrows went up. "In house or outsourced?" he asked, knowing Claire would only answer if she'd been given leave to.

"Outsourced, but not due to leave for several days yet. Though that could change in a heartbeat, as you well know."

Oh, how very well he did know. She'd literally left at a moments notice on a couple of occasions, a hurried phone call from some nameless airport his only reassurance that she'd hadn't run away from him and the Agency and instead been loaned out to make some more brownie points and bucks for the Official. He knew it was a sacrifice on her part, her loan jobs part of the deal that kept him here in San Diego and not dragged all over the country himself at the whims of various ABC agencies. That she did it _for_ him always amazed him and he made every effort to show his gratitude... when she was in town.

"Do you know where?" He quickly added, "If you can tell me, that is."

Claire shook her pretty blonde head. "That information I have not been made privy to, so probably in country." She shrugged. "While back to full strength, I strongly recommended that she be kept near to home as a precaution. No need for those after her to become aware of her unholy ability to survive any sooner than necessary." She managed a ghost of a grin, but it faded quickly.

"True 'nuff," Darien agreed. "I am going to go give Bobby the good news and then see if I can pry Alyx away from... whoever she's stuck in a meeting with." He laughed softly. "If I know her she'll be glad of the rescue." He headed for the door; damn near bouncing off the walls with poorly contained excitement. "Seven at Herb's, yes? You'll be there? I'm buying, promise."

His unabashed joy seemed to finally break past that wall she'd put up against him, and she chuckled. "Yes, Darien, this is most certainly a day that deserves celebrating."

"Woot," he cheered, as the door opened. He barreled out into the hall intent on finding Hobbes and berating him into joining in on what would surely become the party of the year.

.

Darien knocked on the Official's door, but didn't bother waiting for a response before entering. The mutter of irritation had been expected, but not the sigh of dismay, almost as if his appearance had been expected. Five men sat around the conference table, atop which sat several piles of files and two laptops - one clearly Alyx's - that dueled from opposite ends. Whatever the meeting was about and whoever it was for, it had to be big as three of the mooks wore full military dress uniforms, two Marine and one Army if he remembered correctly. That did indeed bode well for an in country mission for Alyx, not that that meant easier, just more convenient to home, is all.

"What do you want, Fawkes?" the Official rumbled, probably wanting to get on with the meeting and go home himself. Without Eberts about to do most of the schlep work, he must have been having one hell of a time getting anything of value accomplished. The weekly change in assistants had been an ongoing source of amusement for Bobby and Darien, even if the reason for it happening still burned. He killed that mental maundering quickly. Now was not the time to go wandering down that particular pathway. Now... now was the time to play the gallant knight and rescue the fair maiden.

Darien ignored the 'Fish, instead focusing on Alyx, who met his gaze with poorly hidden amusement. "Herb's at seven."

She cocked her head to the side, clearly thinking, and at the same time he felt her power brush across him, making him want to shiver in pleasure, the contact not quite enough for direct communication, but enough to know she was damned happy for him. "Seven-thirty," she countered with, and he nodded.

He'd take what he could get and would bet even money that this meeting was intended to go on far longer than that, though he had to admit the looks on the faces of the quintet around the table were worth the price of admission. Utter confusion mingled with a touch of _whatthefuck_ that did not mix well with the stuffy suits and government provided uniforms. Not that he truly cared, he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do: rescue the fair maiden from the clutches of the evil wizard and his minions in his tower. He gave her a grin and backed out of the room, the whole thing having taken less than five minutes all told.

From the hall, he heard the Official rumble into life. "You heard her, you've got an hour to convince me that you actually need Agent Silver's services."

Darien chuckled softly, looked like Alyx wasn't the only one wanting to escape the meeting. Maybe the Official wanted to get home to his wife's roses. Darien shook his head in amusement. Not bloody likely, as the Keeper would say. More likely just using Darien's unscheduled interruption as another opportunity to manipulate things his way. Wouldn't be the first time and most certainly not the last either. And in truth Darien would much rather not be the one at the receiving end of the Official's manipulations. He'd had more than his share already.

That made him pause in his tracks, the echoes of his footsteps in the stairwell fading before he allowed that train of thought to pull out of the station where it sat idling, waiting for clearance. He allowed it to, if slowly, not certain the passengers could handle it at a greater speed. What if... what if this sudden good news was nothing more than another case of being officialed? What if, though real, it would require some sort of sacrifice on his part for it to actually happen? And what if he wasn't willing to pay the tithe?

He pushed that aside, with force. Alyx had been there, made a point to be there when he was told. Yeah, that meant there was a fair chance that she'd known what was going to happen, what with the whole you want to go to work thing of last night she most certainly knew... something. Maybe not exactly what, but more than enough to know that he'd want to be there. Not surprising, really, but at the same time disturbing, and he so didn't want to think about the other side of this right now. How long had they known? How many months had they been hiding this from him, his freedom.

He forced himself back into motion. Not wanting to ruin his high quite yet. His moment in the sun after so very many months under deep, gray, overcast skies. When Claire went over the details tomorrow, it would most certainly bring him back down to reality in a hurry. That wet splat upon the solid earth after a fall from a great height. Tonight would be all about the good. No more no less. And he'd spend it with those who meant the most to him in the world; and that was worth more than gold to him. They'd stuck by him through the hell of the last couple of years, damn straight that he'd have them there to celebrate his reprieve. Taking the stairs two at a time, he hit the parking level and damn near ran for the double doors. With a shout of pure joy, he burst through, into the bright California sunlight, and raced for his car. His plan nothing more than to head home for a quick shower and change, then over to Herb's to grab that big booth in the back.

.

Alyx appeared at the table at seven forty-two, clearly flustered and in the same clothes she'd been wearing at the office. Clothes, he suddenly realized, were not her usual ones. She typically dressed for comfort, t-shirts and jeans, yes, even at the office, unless she was in the mood to push the Fat Man's buttons, then the leather and suede would come out. Shirts missing shoulders or backs, boots that came up past her knees, you name it and she'd worn it... and made it work. This - and he realized she'd been wearing it in the Keep earlier - this was all professional. Black slacks, low heeled, yet dressy boots, white dress shirt, designed to not be tucked in, and a stylish blazer cut to hug her every curve. No way you'd mistake her for a guy, even if you ignored the long curly hair.

She peeled out of the jacket, tossing it over the back of the booth, undid two buttons on the shirt, revealing a deep violet tank top beneath, and plopped herself down next to Darien, who sat at the end of the booth. She scooted in, shoving him over without so much as a by your leave, until everyone had been shoved 'round. Claire and Alyx now facing each other across the wide expanse of cracked table top. Not that he minded her choosing to sit next to him instead of the space that had been next to the good Keeper, who had slid in across the red pleather to sit within Bobby's personal space. Darien draped an arm about Alyx's shoulders, pulled her close, and kissed her a solid one on the lips with an ear to ear grin splitting his face.

Now the celebration could really begin.

"You started without me?" Alyx pouted, reaching for the pitcher of dark beer on the table, which was already half-empty. Or still half-full if he were to put a more optimistic spin on things.

"You were late," Bobby said with a shrug and a smile. "Munchies of every type are on the way, Mr. Hollow Legs here was hungry... as usual." He raised his glass, filled with pale cider from one of the other pitchers - there were four on the table containing various libations in various shades at the moment - and drank down most of what remained.

"Good, I'm starved. Been stuck in the 'Fish's office most of the day. If the big boys had gotten straight to the point, we could have settled the deal in a couple of hours, but no, they had drag it out all day, figuring the Official wouldn't outwait them." She turned to Darien. "He says, 'thank you,' by the way. Your timing was impeccable, as usual, and he was able to triple his price with them cringing only a little."

"You're welcome, and let him know I'll take my ten percent cut of the gross in my next paycheck."

Alyx laughed, "I'll pass that on."

Claire snorted into her glass, clearly finding amusement in Darien's sudden reversion to extortion unexpected to say the least. "You'll never go completely straight, will you?" she asked, humor evident in her tone.

Darien shrugged. "Doubt it," he answered candidly. "Will I take up a life of crime again?" He paused mostly for dramatic effect. "Probably not." Will I case pretty much any place I walk into for the rest of my life? Certainly. Between being a thief and the spy racket, it's automatic." He gestured at Bobby. "Hobbesy here does it, even if the focus is a little different."

Bobby nodded, clearly in agreement. "True enough, my friend. And not a habit I plan to break, either; its kept me alive this long, figure it'll keep me alive a while longer."

"I notice you left Alyx out of that," Claire pointed out, tone almost harsh.

Darien didn't get a chance to answer, Bobby got there first. "With the kid's talent? She does it without having to work at it. And usually spots stuff the two of us miss."

Claire rolled her eyes while Alyx grinned over the top of her glass, the look a comment all on its own. And not a friendly one. The look on the Keeper's face wasn't exactly all smiles either. Something had clearly gone down between the two of them when he hadn't been looking, and though curious to know what the hell had happened, and why, he shoved it aside for the time being, sensing that bringing in out into the open, in an attempt to clear the air between the two girls, would be anything but conducive to the celebrating he wanted to get on with. And in that spirit he raised a hand, gaining the attention of their waitress, who arrived at the table mere seconds later.

"We'll have the food out in just a few minutes," she assured them, the perky flirtation of earlier suddenly muted in the presence of Alyx, who wasn't radiating a _mine_ vibe as far as Darien could tell, and though awfully cute, the waitress inevitably took a distant second to Alyx and was clearly aware of that fact. So she'd changed tactics from flirting her way to a big tip to making certain the Alpha female of the group was happy. What the poor server failed to realize was that Alyx would be more than happy to watch and even participate in said flirting. Hell, if Darien played his cards right he could make it a challenge; see which of them could score her phone number first. Wouldn't be the first time they'd played the game. And it _always_ made for a fun evening. And an even better finish to the night once they were alone.

"Cool," Darien said, with a shy smile on his face. "Round of shots, if you would. Whiskey for me and Hobbesy, tequila - Silver Patron, if you have it - for the redhead, and twelve year old scotch for the blonde."

The waitress' eyebrows shot up at Patron and only slid higher at the scotch. She glanced about the table, as if expecting disagreement, but only got nods confirming his choices. "Coming right up," she said, and sauntered off with a bemused expression on her face.

Alyx snickered, shaking her head in clear amusement. "The usual?" she asked him.

"Of course," he agreed, not the least bit surprised she knew what he'd been thinking.

"Play nice," Bobby warned, but with a smile cracking his features, as if he knew what was going on, which he probably did. Wasn't the first time they'd played the game with Hobbesy along. In fact, on rare occasions they could get him to play along as well. However, with the Keeper here, Bobby would be far more likely to play her, than some waitress, no matter how cute.

Claire turned to Bobby, looked back at Darien and Alyx, then huffed in obvious discontent. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Alyx stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

Claire's eyes narrowed as she sucked in a breath, clearly planning a scathing retort.

Much to Darien's surprise, Hobbes cut it off at the knees.

Poking her in the side Bobby said, "Ease up, Keep, we're not at the office. Relax, have fun. Fawkesy's paying for it."

Her head snapped about, thousand watt glare aimed at him, and for an instant Darien feared for his partner's life.

He needn't have worried.

Hobbes, with a huge grin, bussed Claire a good one, making her freeze in place for an instant before squalling, "Bobby, what the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Distractin' you," he explained, around the smile plastered on his face. "We're celebrating, remember?"

At that moment, both the food and libations arrived; more than ample time for Claire to recover and, to all appearances, let whatever the hell it was bugging her drop. When greedy hands reached for food, Darien slapped them away. At the pouts he said, "Shots first."

"Darien, the alcohol-"

He cut her off, "Will loosen you up, Claire. _You_ are still in the Keep."

Alyx didn't say a word, just toyed with her shot glass, as if waiting to see if _Claire_ was going to be joining them tonight. Darien was wondering that himself. Alyx had her emotions locked down tight, and Claire had been... almost cold since giving him the good news and he wasn't about to let _work_ spoil what had been the _best_ news he'd received in recent memory.

"Raising his glass he said, "To happy endings... and new beginnings."

The other three raised their glasses, adding a cheery, "Here, here," of agreement. The shots were downed quickly, heads thrown back, swallowed, then gasps as the burn of pricey alcohol made it's way down unprepared throats. Three glasses slammed to the table in unison, grins on the faces of the trio. Only Alyx still held her glass, though now empty, a wistful expression on her face. Without asking, Bobby and Claire fell to the food, filling their plates with an assortment of tidbits. Darien signaled for another round, then turned his attention to Alyx.

He nudged her with an elbow and leaned in close to softly ask, "What's up?"

She turned to him, giving him a brilliant smile for his trouble. "Not a thing," she assured him, but he didn't buy it for a hot second.

"Liar," he stated, resting his forehead against hers and receiving a deep sigh for his efforts. A momentary wash of _very_ mixed emotions played across him, but she was quick to lock it down, which did little to ease his concern.

She set a hand on his thigh. "Am not. Though I could probably fix that."

He closed his eyes for a long moment, enjoying the feel of her fingers gently massaging the muscles of his leg. She obviously wanted no part of a serious discussion at the moment, and between the alcohol and what her hand was currently doing, he had no issues allowing it to drop. He'd revisit the topic tomorrow, provided he remembered, that is.

"All right, you two. Save the private celebratin' for later," Bobby ordered, and Darien opened his eyes to turn and look at his friend, who, based on the shit-eating grin taking up his whole face, wasn't nearly as upset as the authoritative tone had suggested.

Darien pulled away from Alyx and cocked his head to the side. "You could always join us," he suggested, making her laugh softly and Claire turn an interesting shade of pink, "or you two gonna have some one on one time of your own." The pink turned to red as Claire glanced at Bobby and then away.

Hobbes wagged a finger, trying for anger, but, having imbibed just enough booze, he managed to miss the mark entirely. "Fawkes... Ah, hell." Then blushed furiously, which only made Alyx laugh all the harder.

Bobby glared at her, so she held up her hands in submission. "No teasing, promise, but I must admit it's an interesting turn of events from Mister Company Pier himself."

He ducked his head for a moment, in acknowledgement of the deserved jibe, then met her eyes squarely. "Fair enough, my friend." He rubbed the top of his head for a moment. "Not that you two set a stellar example to follow." Claire turned to stare at him in surprise, but he just shrugged. "Just saying..."

Claire shook her head in obvious dismay. "There isn't _anything_ going on between... between us," she insisted, though the continued pinking of her cheeks seemed to decry otherwise.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Darien stated, not about to let this opportunity pass without at least token commentary. The two had been dancing around each other for _ages_, and in the last few weeks seemed to be dancing just a few steps closer to... dating... maybe. Alyx's death, fake as it had been had caused more than few changes at the Agency, more even than the 'Fish possibly realized. Then again, given the 'Fish was the 'Fish he might very well have known the instant the game changer between Bobby and Claire had happened. Darien certainly wouldn't put it past him.

"No kidding," Bobby added in an undertone that was still more than loud enough for all of them to clearly hear.

Claire spluttered, unable to form a clear sentence for several long minutes, while the other three laughed in amusement.

It was Alyx who defused the potentially explosive situation. "Kidding aside, if you make each other happy, go for it. _Nothing_ else matters."

Claire stared at Alyx for a long moment, as if searching for the unpleasant surprise that Darien knew not to be coming, found nothing but Alyx's usual brand of honest observation, heaved a great sigh, and relaxed for the first time since sitting in the booth nearly an hour ago. That brand spanking new line in the sand drawn between the two girls wiped away for the time being. For which Darien could only be thankful. He wanted to celebrate not referee a cat fight between his two favorite women. Though for an instant his mind wandered off to into realms where said cat fighting involved fewer clothes and far more groping than actual fighting, which meant the booze was doing the job it was supposed to. Granted his mind often lived in the vicinity of the proverbial gutter, but he generally didn't bring it out to show Claire. And that mental turn of phrase brought with it a whole passel of images that would earn him a solid smack from the good Doctor sitting across from him. Which had the potential for some fun, actually.

Alyx snorted in laughter, tried to cover it with a blatantly fake cough, then gave it up as a bad job when he waggled his eyebrows at her.

Both Bobby and Claire looked completely confused until Alyx stated in a bored tone, "Darien's horny," and left it at that.

This time Darien blushed full, not able to argue with what was most certainly the truth, while Claire giggled and Bobby shook his head in clear amusement.

"I'm sure the kid'll take care of that later, just keep it in yer pants for now, hotshot."

Claire's mouth dropped open for a long moment, before she burst out in yet another round of giggles. Darien shook his head, laughing softly at the antics of his Keeper. Getting her to drop her guard was always tricky, but he absolutely loved it when _Claire_ came out to grace them with her presence. He understood the wall she had to remain behind, and knew better than to touch on certain subjects when her resistance had been lowered, 'cause, damn she _would_ _so_ get even with him if he took advantage of her, and those shots hurt enough already without her coming at him with a full mad on. And that was the least of the potential ways she could get back at him, if pissed enough she could deny him the inhibitor, or worse the counteragent... that thought stopped dead. After tomorrow that wouldn't be an issue... ever again. Tomorrow would be the very first step of his walk to freedom. That long walk out of the prison walls after that first stint inside and the joy he'd felt to be free of those dreary gray stone walls had nothing on the sudden overwhelming joy that bubbled up as the truth really sank in: he'd survived, he'd be getting out; he was free and nothing would ever compare.

Grabbing his half full glass of beer, he raised it and said, "To Claire, the best damn Keeper around." He gulped down a fair portion. "Thank you."

Claire blinked. "For what?" she asked, the words only slightly fuzzy around the edges.

"For what?" Hobbes echoed. "You either need more or already had too much. For figuring out how to get the gland out, duh."

She looked bemused for a second. "Oh, that." She lifted her glass and practically chugged the ale, as if that statement made her want to get stinking drunk. She glanced at Alyx, the blue-eyed gaze a challenging one, but when no response came, set the glass down, and sighed softly. "I'm just glad we got that sorted out."

Hobbes snorted. "Just listen to her, a few months ago she was all but tearing her hair out working on the problem and now she... you're treating it like it was a foregone conclusion." He shoved her gently. "Toldja you'd sort it out."

"Yes, you did, Bobby," she agreed, clearly not about to elaborate on the matter, her sidelong glances at Alyx confusing the fuck out of Darien. Almost as if Claire were waiting for Alyx to do... something, but he had no clue as to what. And, right now, it didn't matter; whatever had been going on between the girls had no bearing on tonight's festivities. Now he felt the need for more perception-altering lubrication.

With perfect timing, their server appeared with their newest round of drinks and set them on the table. "Anything else?" she asked, plainly still unsure how to handle the group.

"Keep the rounds coming," Alyx told her, "and the pitchers full and we should be good to go." She gave the girl a slow smile, her eyes quite blatantly roving over the pretty blonde waitress, which caused the girl to blink as she processed the shift in mood by her _female_ customer. Darien had to give her credit; she took it in stride, smiled in return, clearly more than willing to play along, especially if it earned her a bigger tip.

"Of course," she agreed. "Every thirty or so on the shots?"

"Perfect," Darien said with and a grin, taking his turn to admire the curves the snug-fitting clothes revealed, and getting slow fluttering of her eyelashes for his trouble.

"Done, just give a holler if you want anything in particular."

"Oh, I'll be sure to do that," Alyx got out before Darien could even manage formulate a response. Though he probably would have said something similar, had the alcohol not been slowing his synapses more than a touch. Alyx would always be quicker on the draw in these situations, but since she most likely had an uphill battle, it evened the playing field.

Then again based on the sudden rise of color to the server's cheeks, that slope Alyx was pushing up might not be as steep as he'd thought. When the server sauntered away a moment later, she made certain to sway those hips for all to see.

Hobbes snorted in pure amusement once she was out of hearing range in the crowded bar. "Fawkes, my friend, you're outta your league."

Darien chuckled softly, nodding in complete agreement. "Tell me something I don't know."

Claire's eyebrows drew together as her more-than-slightly pickled brain cells tried to process what wasn't being said. Given the over-abundance of brain cells she possessed, it didn't take her long at all. "She's using her abilities, yes?"

Hobbes answered. "Nope. She just flirts like a player, is all."

Alyx just shrugged. "I grew up with three brothers, and my study choice was a male-dominated field. You go along to get along." She handed around the shots, toying with hers before continuing. "I'm still a tomboy at heart, and always will be. I've always gotten along better with guys than gals." She met Claire's eyes squarely. "Mom made every effort to instill something vaguely ladylike in me, and I _can_ fake it if necessary, but given she'd never been a traditional female herself..." she trailed off. "I am what I am."

Claire seemed to take a moment to digest Alyx's words, taking her time to formulate a response. "Thought you were what we made you?"

For second Darien had some concern that Alyx was about to blow her proverbial top, but instead she laughed.

"That too," Alyx said with a nod. "Though, truthfully, could you image how well I would have fit in here had I been a... a _girl_?"

Hobbes snorted into his beer. "Kid, I can't even picture that." He shook his head chuckling softly at the images his mind had conjured up. "For the record I like you just the way you are. 'Sides we have Claire to play the part of _lady_ when needed."

The lady in question huffed in discontent. "I am no more a _girl_ than Alyx," she argued, her words only slightly slurred.

"True 'nuff, Keepy, but you are most certainly a Lady... in every sense of the word." While Darien truly had no clue as to Claire's lineage, he definitely had his suspicions and those included the belief that she most likely came from a family that fell somewhere in the _royalty_ part of the British food chain. He'd never asked, least not since that early incident when he'd followed her about and discovered her name. If that was actually her real name, and not some cover identity she lived under. He could drive himself mad thinking about it, so he tried not to, and just trusted that the face she showed him was a true one. If so, then the name didn't matter, the knowing of who she was _did_.

And given she'd done what she'd promised, what she'd set out to do shortly after meeting him that first time in the padded room, he knew that trust hadn't been misplaced. "Thank you, Claire," he said, his voice surprisingly soft, and the sentiment completely real.

"You're welcome," she responded with an astonishingly sincere smile, which she spoiled by hiccupping, making Darien laugh. "The Keepy is tipsy," she informed them with a blissed out look in her eyes.

"Yes, you most certainly are," Alyx stated in agreement. "I shall take on my usual role as designated driver and see to it you all get home safe and sound. Any of you bring your cars?" Two of the three shook their heads.

"We shared a cab over," Hobbes said. "Me and Claire did anyway, not sure how Fawkesy got here."

"Drove," he admitted, "but Herb'll let me leave the car here overnight if needed."

Alyx snorted, "Better be needed or else what's the point of celebrating?"

"Too true, kid," Hobbes agreed and as a follow up raised his shot and downed it. Everyone else followed suit.

Darien nudged Alyx after the empty glasses had been set on the table. "Eat, woman, you said you were hungry."

"Yes, sir," she snarked, but fell to the food as requested.

"So, Fawkes, what are you gonna do after?" Hobbes asked around a mouthful of nacho.

_When you leave, what will you do?_ Flashed through his mind, words Alyx had said to him not so very long ago. He shook his head, attempting to chase away the memory.

He refilled his glass with the dark brew this time as an excuse to avoid Hobbes' question for a few moments. "Dunno," he admitted finally. "Not like there's much call for ex-thieves and ex-spies in the local job market." He rubbed the back of his head, kind of wishing Hobbes hadn't brought the subject up. "Maybe... maybe I'll just live for a while. I've got a decent amount stashed away." He glanced over at Alyx who seemed to be pointedly _not_ looking his way, finding a sudden fascination in the bar food she had in abundance in front of her. "Maybe head up north for a while."

"Cold Springs?" Bobby asked, confusion skittering across his face for several seconds. "Back to the old homestead?"

Darien shrugged. "Don't see why not. Place is mine now, might as well take advantage of that fact."

Alyx shifted then leaning against his shoulder as if aware that the contact was exactly what he wanted at that moment. No surprise there. She sighed softly as he wrapped his arm about her shoulders and pulled her close. He could only hope that she didn't think that he planned on running away forever. The last thing he could imagine doing was leaving her behind, but a few days for himself, knowing she'd be waiting for him, or come up and join him at his call was more than well deserved. Time _alone_, no longer under the purview and watchful eyes of Agency. Then he'd return home to his friends and pick up on the whole living thing that he'd put on pause the last couple of years.

"Of course, Darien. But what about after?" Claire closed her eyes for a long moment and he had some concerns that she'd passed out without realizing it. When she opened them her gaze was intense, decrying the fact he'd thought she was drunker than a skunk. "There must be something you wish to do with your life? You've said you won't return to being a thief."

Darien shrugged. "I'm sure I'll think of something, Claire. The one thing I'll definitely have after the gland is out is _time_."

"All the time you need," Alyx said quietly, her words having all that much more impact because they were so soft. "I'll make certain of that."

"Kid..." Bobby trailed off, shaking his head. "You'd run roughshod over the 'Fish, wouldn't you?"

"Hell, yes," she told him, not bothering to even try to prevaricate. The she shrugged. "I still have some leverage I can use if needed."

"Save it for something more important, sweets. I'll manage just fine." He tipped his head over to rest against the top of hers. " 'Sides I'll have all of you to cock block the Fat Man should he try anything."

Claire snorted into her glass of beer, then spluttered, trying to swallow and cough at the same time. Bobby came to her rescue even as he laughed. "You have had enough of the hard stuff, Keepy. You have zero tolerance."

"Tell me something I don't know," Claire responded, her voice about an octave lower than normal thanks to the carbonation still trapped somewhere in the region of her larynx. "Just one... incident at college taught me to stay away from anything stronger than wine, but seeing as this is a special occasion..."

"Do we want to know?" Darien prompted, wondering what she could have done that was so terrible for her to have sworn off hard liquor. Though given what he'd seen of her after hours, there was most definitely a hedonist hiding under that prim and proper exterior.

Claire blushed, "It involved a decided lack of clothes and a swimming pool," she admitted, before bursting out in giggles.

"Could've been worse," Alyx informed her. "You could've gone streaking through the football team's locker room on game day."

Bobby's jaw dropped. "You didn't?"

Alyx shrugged. "Opposing team, and I take full credit for the win that day."

Bobby roared in laughter.

"That's my girl," Darien informed her, gently grasping her chin and tipping her head up to kiss her for several timeless moments. He finally released her with a small sigh of contentment. Right now, nothing could be more perfect in his world.

Claire shook her head. "You were a wild child? That doesn't fit anything I know about you," she said, the words quite slurred by this point and Darien made a metal note to slow down the scotch for her. He wanted to have fun, not send his Keeper into a black out.

Alyx shrugged. "If you want to call it that. I wasn't in constant trouble or anything like that, just had fun and pushed the envelope without crossing any major lines." She glanced around the table meeting everyone's eyes for an instant before continuing. "Our parents raised us to be ourselves, not forcing us into some niche that someone thought we should be stuffed into."

"Square peg into a round hole," Bobby stated with a quick nod.

"Exactly, my friend," Alyx agreed. "They made certain we were prepared to stand on our own feet, but provided support instead of direction."

"Ah," Claire stated effusively. "That explains quite a few things."

And it did for Darien as well. No wonder she just accepted him as who he was and no more. That's how she had been raised. It had always been one of things he admired about her. Her ability to just accept things... people as who they were. To accept him as he was and not try to fit him into some mold created by her mind. As Bobby had said: square peg in a round hole. She was one of the few people in his life who didn't do that, which, of course, made him like her all the more.

"As if I'm some great mystery," Alyx huffed, her tone bordering on angry for the first time all evening, which was odd given she'd made a point to tame her usual ire when Claire had been poking her with sticks earlier.

"Kid..." Bobby shook his head. "We only know what you let us. Yeah, we got files and info, but it's just words on paper. None of it is _you_." He scratched the top of his head, eyes squinting as if unable to focus too well at the moment, and given the amount of alcohol, he'd drunk was most likely the case. "If that makes any sense."

She hand waved his statement... literally. "Shit, Bobby, that's true for all of us. How much of your file is Top Secret? How much of _Claire's_?" Her emphasis making it clear, to Darien anyway, that she too had doubts about the legitimacy of the good Keeper's nom de plume. "Darien's public file will be whitewashed once he's out, right down to his credit score, so don't you dare give me that 'we don't know you' bullshit. You can trust me in a tight sitch, that's _all_ you need to know."

Darien blinked, kind of shocked at the mini-rant he'd just been side-swiped by. The shock mostly due to the sudden realization that everything she'd just said was the unvarnished truth. He knew what he knew about his friends and that was it. Did it change anything? Not really. But she'd definitely called Bobby to the carpet on that one.

And based on the thunderous look on his partner's face, he didn't much care for that.

"Kid..." Bobby sighed, letting the momentary anger drain away. "How do you do that? Cut straight to the heart of something that most people wouldn't ever think about, much less see?"

Alyx shrugged. "My curse. Always being right is an awesome responsibility, you know."

And that diffused the situation completely, as Bobby roared with laughter.

Claire giggled. "You're ego is showing."

"Yup," Alyx agreed with a grin lighting up her eyes. "Helps that I'm the only one with a fully functioning brain at the moment. You all are just way too slow on the uptake in your current conditions. But don't worry I'll regale you with all the pertinent information once you've sobered up and recovered from the hangovers." She chuckled softly. "Gonna be an interesting day tomorrow."

"Oh bloody hell," Claire groused, "I never even thought about the consequences."

"As it should be, Claire. Now is time for fun, worry about tomorrow when it gets here, not before." Darien grinned. " 'Sides my headache will be as bad as yours. We can suffer together."

"Show up late, Doc," Hobbes stated, lifting his glass of beer and taking a huge swallow. "You'll just be doing prelim stuff with Fawkes, right?"

Claire sighed heavily. "True, and I do suppose after this I will require a bit of a lie in."

Alyx snorted. "A bit? Claire you have no clue how drunk you really are," she stated. "I'd tell the lot of you to take tomorrow off, but not a single one of us can really afford to, especially now."

"What's so especially about now?" Darien asked, the room deciding unexpectedly to tilt to the right.

Alyx just shook her head and refilled his glass with the pale. "Drink, drink and be merry my friends, we have a success story to celebrate."

They all raised their glasses in toast.

.

They ended up back at Darien's place. She'd left her car at Herb's and taken his in order to drive everyone home safe and sound. We'd all worked together, as much as three suffering from the effects of way too much booze and one perfectly sober person could anyway. It had taken all of them to get Claire home and tucked into bed. Darien had had some concern the good Keeper would be up riding the porcelain bus in a short amount of time, but Alyx assured him Claire wasn't that bad off. She had even managed to gulp down a couple glasses of water before collapsing into bed, which would help to stave off some of the hangover she'd be certain to have come morning.

Then it had been Hobbes' turn, which hadn't been all that difficult as he wasn't nearly as gone in the head as Claire, though it wouldn't be likely that he'd be awake at his usual oh-six-hundred as it was already well after two a.m. They'd closed Herb's down, which had been Darien's intention from the start, and if it wasn't for the fact that it was a weeknight would have bribed him to keep the place open, if only for them. However, Alyx had astutely pointed out that at least two of their foursome had been up far too many hours already and that, combined with the drink, meant they should be headed for the land of Nod, instead of another round of alcoholic libations. It hadn't taken much persuading, as both Bobby and Claire had been the proverbial three sheets to the wind by that point and Darien had paid the bill with a more than generous tip and left Herb to finish cleaning up so he and his employees could get home.

So, Bobby had been left curled up comfortably on his bed, assuring Darien that he was just fine and would see them in the morning. He had just laughed at that. While Hobbes might just be up before noon, there was no way in hell Darien would be, not without divine intervention. He had plans for when he got home - his or hers, it didn't really matter at this point - and they involved still being awake when dawn colored the city.

So, once his door had been shut and locked he pounced on Alyx, who didn't seem the least bit surprised. Not that she should be given the gentle teasing that had been going on between them all evening, he had always planned to finish this celebration in a state of decidedly sweaty undress. He might not be sober, but he'd made every effort to not get all that drunk. He had a decent buzz still, but the room didn't spin the least little bit when he closed his eyes, which meant he was just fine and dandy for some serious bed play.

Alyx chuckled softly and slithered out of his grasp easily. "You are drunk, bub."

"Yup, I am," he agreed, shedding his jacket and kicking off his shoes. "But not _that _drunk." He dug through his pockets and pulled out the receipt from the bar, on it, written in neat cursive was a phone number and the name Janine, proving he'd been successful in tonight's endeavor. He tossed his jacket on the pool table and held up the paper for Alyx to see.

Alyx pulled a napkin out of her pants pocket and held it out to him. On it were the same phone number, Janine, and an underlined "call me anytime" in the identical handwriting. Darien snorted in laughter. "What time?" he asked, oddly certain that she'd won the bet this time around.

"Just after ten," Alyx answered, confirming Darien's not so bold assumption. "She cornered me on the way back from the ladies room."

"So, you win."

"As usual," she said around a grin.

He moved over to her with slow deliberate steps, stalking her for all intents and purposes as there was something about her, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, almost as if she wasn't all here, though why he couldn't imagine... or maybe didn't want to. She'd kept her emotions locked down tight all night long, allowing him nothing but the most briefest peeks into what was going on inside. And that wasn't like her, not as of late anyway. After that week in Cold Springs and their temporarily living together, she'd opened up quite a bit, permitting him to share her emotional state, that link allowing emotions to flow both ways instead of just his to her. He knew doing that had been difficult for her and he'd appreciated it, appreciated her letting him in and granting him a chance to understand her better. And _that_ could never be a bad thing. But today, she'd closed that connection down and he knew no more than what she granted him, or could not help but share, and that worried him, if only slightly. It could be no more than work related need to know, which he could understand. They all had their secrets to keep; she just had to work harder at it than others.

She didn't back away, just waited patiently for him to reach her, tipping her head up as he got closer so she could continue to meet his eyes. Being cautious to not touch her skin, he removed her jacket and tossed it next to his own, and then began to work on the buttons of her shirt, undoing them one at a time as if he had absolutely no interest in tearing it off her, stripping her bare, tossing her onto the bed and just taking her. No, he just acted as if he fully planned on taking this one achingly slow step at a time irregardless of how badly he wanted her. What he wanted more was for her to let him back in, if only for a few hours; even when necessary he hated when she put up that wall and planned to do his very best to bring it down.

Only once the shirt had been shed did he brush fingers along her skin, just barely making contact with her shoulder, lightly tracing up along the side of her neck until he cupped her face in his hand. Her eyes remained open and looking into his, her gaze seeming strangely sad to him. "I won't be here when you wake up," she told him in a soft voice.

He failed to keep his disappointment from her, though the fact he still held her face in his hands meant there was little chance she wouldn't know what he was feeling at the moment. "Why not?" he asked, making certain to keep the hurt out of his voice.

She smiled and tipped her head into his hand, rubbing her cheek along his palm. "Because it's after three a.m. and I have a meeting first thing in the morning. You aren't likely to wake up before noon."

He couldn't argue that, but he'd still prefer having her by his side when he did finally return to consciousness. "What time's the meeting?" He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead, allowing his needs, his wants to come to the forefront, that way she'd know exactly what she was dealing with.

"Ten," she answered, "and there's no way I'm going to be doing the walk of shame."

Darien snorted and pulled back slightly to look at her, her eyes drowsy with _his_ desire at the very least. He slid the right strap of the camisole down her arm, taking the lacy bra strap with it, the curve of her breast visible by the time he stopped. "Not the like 'Fish can't guess what we'd be getting up to tonight," he grouched, not really as upset as he was pretending to be.

"Not the 'Fish I'm worried about," she replied, eyes drifting shut as his hands trailed along the newly revealed flesh. "Just have stuff I need to do before the meeting is all."

He leaned down, lips brushing along her temple. "How's about you keep me up till dawn, then you can grab a couple hours of sleep and still have time to go home and change. Please?" he whispered the last, playing on the fact that she could get by with far less sleep than the rest of humanity, and she nodded, giving in far easier that he had imagined she would. Her hands finally came up, finding their way under his shirt to curve about his back, but without bringing him any closer, telling him she was quite comfortable with him setting the pace tonight. It was his celebration after all.

It wasn't enough though, he could feel that tingle of static wherever skin met skin, bringing his flesh to a shocking awareness, but no more, no emotions, and that meant she was holding back. But why? He knew she sometimes worried that she would overwhelm him, subsume his thoughts, his emotions, his very self under the tidal wave of her own, but it hadn't yet occurred. Yeah, sometimes they got so tangled together that they got caught up in the moment and then had difficulty pulling apart when it was all over, but that was it. A few moments to center and get themselves back under control and everything had been fine.

Leaning in he kissed her gently, lips barely touching her and whispered, "Let me in, please?"

She literally shuddered from head to toe and her hold on that wall collapsed.

He groaned aloud and captured her lips with his, her need a living, breathing entity that grabbed a hold of him and refused to let go. He fought against it, as much as he could but still found her stripped to nothing but her panties when he was finally able to pull himself back from that precipice. "And who's horny now?" he said aloud even though she would have heard him even had he not spoken.

"That would be you," she stated primly, "given you're still dressed."

It was true too. Her hands might have continued their roving under his shirt, but the clothes had yet to be removed, hell, they were barely out of place. Her control was pretty amazing he had to admit, the trick was get her to lose it... if only a little.

As if she'd heard that thought, and given their emotions were still very much entwined she probably had, she said, "You're the one in control tonight," which damn near broke him as he could feel she how much meant the words.

"Alyx," he began, not realizing until that moment how breathless he was, but she silenced him with a look.

"Your choice," she said, granting him leave do as he wished with both word and thought, and that... that could be a dangerous thing 'cause it might be hours until he would be sated.

"Till dawn, remember?"

Christ, three hours of play should be more than enough to satisfy even him. Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her over to the bed and lay her gently down. He wanted her, right now, but he would wait, time was the one thing he had in abundance, and he fully intended to enjoy this capper to the night of celebration as it should be.


	2. the path to the left

_"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." A wise observation, I must admit, from a wise Roman Emperor, but how does one go blithely into that goodnight when they __**know**__ what is coming. It's damn hard to find equanimity in the midst of conflict when said conflict is all within yourself._

_the path to the left_

_._

"_Tomorrow's the big day, huh?" Alyx queried needlessly, as she walked into my apartment. "Excited?"_

"_Try petrified. Claire chose today to go over everything in detail and, when I wasn't completely lost, I was nauseated," I explained from my kitchen, where I was searching through my fridge for my last meal. _

"_She just wanted to be sure you understood what's going to happen. She's forgotten that you don't really care about the how, just the results." She had climbed up on one of the barstools and was sitting cross-legged on it. "Everything will be fine."_

"_I'm glad one of us has confidence," I commented ruefully. I walked over to her, deciding I wasn't very hungry after all. At least not for food._

"_I was wondering, does the condemned get a last request?" I leaned against the counter and watched her out of the corner of my eye. She visibly flinched at my choice of words._

"_Condemned? I thought this was your pardon." She looked so very serious when I was trying to lighten the mood. I wasn't kidding when I said I was scared._

_Then it hit me that she might be just as frightened as I was about tomorrow. If things went well I wouldn't be seeing her for at least a month. "Lets not talk about it." I moved closer, my hand coming up to caress her face. She was tense, but closed her eyes in response to my touch. I wondered if I could ever get enough of her._

"_Darien, there's something I want to tell you." I was busy nibbling on her earlobe when she said this. _

"_Can it wait?" I requested, wanting to devour her as if __**she**__ was my last meal. Moving my hand, I caressed her breast, feeling the nipple harden under my palm. She moaned and unfolded her legs to wrap them about my waist. _

_I guess it could._

Darien twitched awake, his heart aching with loss, and not for the first time in recent weeks. Least this time the dream hadn't had a chance to run its course, the ringing of the phone ending it about halfway through to its less than happy ending. When he hadn't yet learned exactly what his leaving the Agency had ultimately led to. Not that the situation had been his fault, even though it felt that way. He managed to ignore the phone long enough for the answering machine to kick on to dead air, which told him it had been nothing but a computer generated call, hoping he'd be home to pick up. A waste of time, to put it mildly. Glancing at the clock he saw it was well past noon, which meant he'd managed to get about six hours sleep. Not enough, really, and though wanting to roll over and return to the Land of Nod, at least two parts of his anatomy decried otherwise. He had one hell of a pounding through his skull and had to pee like that proverbial racehorse. Each on their own would probably have been enough to convince him to start his day, and with them ganging up on him there was no chance he'd be able to fall back into blessed unconsciousness.

Dragging his semi-conscious ass out of bed, his head thrumming in time to his heartbeat, he staggered his way to the bathroom to deal with two very important things: mother nature's call and the dirty sock drawer his mouth had become. Only when those things had been accomplished would he try to face the day as a human being.

Forty-five minutes later he came out the bathroom trailed by wisps of steam, a towel held firmly about his hips, he felt miles better already, between the hot shower and half-gallon of water he'd drunk he was not only ready to face the remainder of the day, but looking forward to it. He just needed to dress and head into the Keep to get this show on the road. Checking his cell phone as he dressed, he found a voicemail from Claire assuring him she had made it to the Agency in one piece and would be waiting on his arrival to begin. She didn't sound too hot, which meant she probably had a hangover of monstrous proportions and given how much she'd had to drink the night before he failed to be the least bit surprised. He was more shocked at the fact she'd made it into the office already. Then again, she'd been out cold shortly after being dropped off at home, unlike himself who had indeed seen the dawn.

Last night... or rather early this morning had been one hell of a romp, yet he had concerns about the whole damn night. Yeah, she'd let him in once he'd asked, but he'd realized at one point during a pause in their play that she'd only let him in so far. All those surface emotions and needs of the moment being shared, but nothing deeper, that wall she'd put up not so much knocked down as shifted inward a short distance, which meant she was hiding something from him and, in light of yet another visit by that damn dream, he feared what it could be.

He would just have to talk to her, if she had the time, and see if she'd be willing to tell him. There were any number of seemingly innocent things it could be about, from her children to new blackmail by the Official. His concern, of course, was that it was about _them_. That her promises to the contrary her interest in him was waning and that... that would _hurt_ him. Better to ask and be assured he was playing the part of village idiot again, than worry himself into another bout of depression. But it would perforce have to wait until later, as she had meetings all day with those government mooks and might not be able to pull herself away easily.

He could be patient for now, especially since he definitely had something of importance to do today. Grabbing his jacket and car keys, he left his apartment heading for his car and work.

He arrived at the Keep with two grande lattes and a selection of pastries from the Starbucks just down the street. Halfway to the office he realized he was starving and figured it wouldn't hurt to bring some munchies for his Keeper, not a bribe, per se, but more because she probably hadn't eaten yet, considering her sure to be impressive hangover.

He let himself into the Keep and set the goodies beside her on the lab bench, while sipping from his latte. The rich coffee and heavy cream just what he needed at the moment. "Morning, Keepy."

"Good afternoon, Darien," she corrected, turning to meet his gaze with a pair of bloodshot eyes. Darien was hard pressed not to laugh.

"Do you feel as bad you look?"

She sighed heavily. "No, thank god. Your foresight last night helped immensely, that and a dose of B12 and I was able to make myself marginally human." She got to her feet and waved towards the far-side of the lab, where the evil chair resided. "Up you go."

With only token grumbling, he climbed up into the chair, drink still in hand. "So how is this gonna work?" he asked, ready now to hear what needed to be done to evict that guest in the back of his head. "Some surgery, I assume."

She nodded. "Ultimately, yes, but that should be fairly simple should everything else go well."

Darien snorted. "Since when does brain surgery count as simple?"

"Since now, I suppose." She turned away from him and retrieved a file from the nearby table, the one where a batch of counteragent was currently brewing. "What do you want to know?"

Good question. Did he really want the details of how she... or another surgeon, as he had no idea if Claire was even qualified to go digging into his grey matter, was going to actually get the gland out of his skull. Uh, not really. In a generic sense, yeah, but definitely not the specifics. How this miracle had come about, yeah, that he'd like to know. "So, what do I need to do... if anything. I mean you're not just gonna go in and yank it out, are you?"

Claire managed a weak smile. "No, Darien, in fact it'll be quite straightforward, though you will have to put up with a series of injections and tests to make certain everything is going as it should."

"Okay." He shifted to sit up a bit straighter, his legs dangling down the side of the chair. "What do these shots do?"

She nodded to him and stepped closer, what was obviously a patently fake reassuring smile on her face. "The injections will cause the gland to slowly shut down and ultimately detach itself from your cerebral cortex, then... we take it out."

She managed to make it sound so very simple, and yet he got the feeling something more, a lot more was going on here. "And how does it shut the gland down?" He knew he sounded wary, but he couldn't help it. Her answers we dumbed down way more than usual, and though it might have been intentional, he doubted it. He wasn't _that_ stupid and could handle a Latin term or two if needed. This sounded too much like a pre-planned speech, based on what she'd assume he would ask. And he didn't like that one little bit.

She sighed and turned away, the file in her hand waving as she spoke with her hands. "It's a variant of the inhibitor you are on. Given we have to break the addiction to the Madness toxin and any potential dependence on the Quicksilver, this is a perfect method. It could take anywhere from four to eight weeks to be certain you experience no ill effects-"

"You mean withdrawal, don't you?" She didn't even get the least bit angry at his interruption, just nodded in agreement.

"Yes, Darien, that is exactly what I mean. It's why we've been so very cautious with the inhibitor. We have no way of knowing at what point you may experience withdrawal to the toxin." She tucked a stray lock of hair behind one ear. "You've already had withdrawal symptoms from the Counteragent, withdrawal from the toxin will probably be much worse."

He could remember how bad it had gotten some days, wanting a shot just after having received one, literally. Alyx had dulled that need, though it still remained, but it had become easier to deal with as his body adjusted to the changes created by the inhibitor. "Okay, slow and steady then. I can deal with that. But how does that make the gland detach?"

"The series of injections vary as the gland begins to shut down." She met his eyes, her look serious. "If everything goes as it should, you will be unable to Quicksilver within approximately two weeks, after that the gland will shut down completely, the branchings that connect to your brain should atrophy and wither, detaching themselves and leaving the gland in a neutral setting and waiting for removal."

And now she was repeating herself, if with a few more details. He felt like he was getting the runaround instead of answers, and yet she was telling him exactly what he needed to know. "Has it... has this been tested?"

The smile she gave him was almost believable. "Yes, careful testing has been done, both via computer simulation and live testing - on animals, mind you, but they include a chimpanzee, so I have every confidence this will work for you."

"But they can't have been through everything I have," he protested, not certain why he was suddenly feeling gun-shy.

She sighed heavily. "Darien, while none carried the gland as long as you, every effort was made to duplicate conditions, up to and including both Stage Four and Stage Five incidents."

That stunned him. She'd made the animals go Quicksilver Mad in order to make certain this process would work. That was nuts, but also made perfect sense. "They've all been on the inhibitor, haven't they?"

"Yes, Darien. And received regular Counteragent shots." She stepped beside him and set a hand on his arm. "You understand why?"

He did, he really did, but he still didn't care for the torturing of animals just to save his sorry ass. "Yeah, I do." He ran a hand through his hair, wondering what she wasn't telling him, but not sure what questions to ask to find out. "No weird side-effects?"

She shook her head. "All the animals survived and are living normal, happy lives."

He drank down the last of his coffee pondering that bit of news. "When can we get started?"

She gave him a smile and set the file down. "Right now if you like."

He shrugged. "Why not?"

She busied herself and after a few moments returned with a mayo cart with the usual suspects. A pair of latex gloves, which she proceeded to put on, vial and syringe. Nothing else, not even a tourniquet "Roll up your sleeve, if you would."

"That's it? No tests, no dodging my questions? Lemme guess, it has to go into the gland?" Based on the bore of the needle, that wasn't true, looked like an ordinary syringe, like he used to get his vaccines with, once upon a time.

"No, intramuscular. Upper arm by preference."

Huh. "Okay, Keep, let's do this." He rolled up his sleeve as requested and watched as she picked up the syringe and slid it into the vial, simple as that. She aspirated the syringe and wiped his arm quickly with alcohol. When the scent hit him he was assailed with the image of Alyx lying on a hospital bed, so many tubes and wires strewn about her she was nearly lost in the forest of them. In that instant, in that sliver of a moment he knew this was the wrong choice, knew he shouldn't do this, but was uncertain as to why. He knew the scene playing out in his head was from that dream. He'd had it so often in recent weeks, but had as yet been unable to remember more than bits and pieces, and still had not yet understood what it had been trying in vain to tell him.

He shifted, sliding off the chair and away from Claire and his salvation, unable to sit there for one second longer, some visceral part of him insisting on being obeyed will he or nil he.

"Darien?" Claire sounded as confused as he felt, white gloves contrasting sharply with the dark purple of her lab coat. "Is something wrong?"

"I..." He had no idea how to answer that question. Those images still assailing him. Alyx broken on the bed, her hand, tiny and pale, in his own as he slid the bracelet upon her wrist, wanting to say so many things to her and being unable to articulate a single one. He shook his head, trying to make the images go away, and succeeding marginally, the press not as violent, though they remained in waiting, some unseen, misunderstood reality of this situation making them force themselves upon him. He didn't want to see Alyx like that, to know she could be so very broken as to not want to live, it hurt him in ways he hadn't thought possible. And the fact that he could still see the images, even as he saw the Lab about him, Claire standing in front of him, confusion and concern adorning her features, made him acknowledge, finally, that this particular dream wasn't natural, and could only be one of his hated Quicksilver dreams, one that told the future... a possible future anyway.

Admitting that, finally, seemed to release some hitherto unknown tightness within himself. He raised his head and met Claire's eyes. "Once begun, can this process be reversed?" he asked, not really certain where that question had come from. It hadn't even crossed his mind until this very moment that he might not want to go through with this. That maybe he should really think about what might happen to not just himself but those around him should he actually have the gland removed.

Claire looked at him dumbfounded. "What?"

He managed a soft chuckle, and it sounded only slightly hysterical to his ears. "Can the process be reversed?" he repeated, hoping like hell she didn't think he'd gone suddenly mad or the like.

She huffed and set the syringe back down on the mayo cart. "I don't know," she finally answered.

Darien blinked as she removed the gloves, snapping them off and throwing them onto the tray with far more force than they deserved. "Uh, why don't you know?" A damn good question considering he had been under the distinct impression that she'd been the one to create this method of removing the gland.

"Because I did not... design this removal technique," she said at practically a growl, clearly not thrilled with having to answer that particular question.

Another set of images assailed him at those words.

_"I hope you thanked her," Claire commented softly as she checked my vitals._

_I looked at her in confusion. "Thanked who? For what?"_

_"Alyx, of course. She sank millions into the research project that got that gland out of your head." She must have seen the blank expression on my face, my look of utter disbelief. "You didn't know?"_

_I shook my head. "I thought you had solved it."_

_"No, as a matter of fact I was off in the wrong direction. Alyx funded a private facility and contributed many of the ideas. I was years away from a solution."_

Shaking his head, to clear the dream away he asked, "Who did, then?" If that stupid dream was right, then he already knew the answer, knew to whom he really owed his potential freedom to...

"A lab Alyx funded, apparently. My understanding is that she contributed many of the ideas that led to this solution." The anger flashing in those blue eyes explained the antagonism she'd been showing last night. She'd been ordered to give Darien the news, but she had not come up with it, she hadn't even been close if the misfirings of his mind were to be believed. "If you want the answer to that question you'll need to talk to her as it was not part of the data I received."

"Alyx?" Even knowing what the answer would be, it still surprised him, maybe because he really didn't want to admit the dream was a true one, that at some point in the future, Alyx would be shot and nearly die and that he... he wouldn't be there for her. "Why?" he asked wondering if he sounded as confused as he felt.

Claire laughed, and it had more than a touch of bitterness to it. "Isn't the answer to that obvious?"

Darien shook his head, not certain he'd understood a single thing Alyx had ever done since they'd first met in that austere padded room. "No, it isn't."

Claire sighed, one hand going to rub her forehead, as if that would help with the headache she was surely still dealing with. His sudden attack of the stupids had probably brought it screaming back to life. "What is the one thing you've wanted since Kevin implanted the gland in your head?"

"I..." He trailed off, thinking. He'd wanted lots of things, up to and including some vengeance for his brother, but most of all he'd wanted to be free of the Madness, and above all to be free of the gland. "The gland out," he finally said. And it was then that he realized that that was no longer true. Yeah, he'd like it out eventually, but right now, he was having one hell of a good time. The Madness had become far less of a burden since Alyx had arrived and pushed the development of the inhibitor, and here she'd taken it one step further and provided him with the way out he had craved for so very long.

So why wasn't he taking it?

"Yeah, the gland out," Claire agreed, meeting his eyes. "Yesterday you were all gung ho for doing this, what changed?"

"I wish I knew," he said barely loud enough to be heard. "Why would she do this?" he mused aloud. Maybe his fears about her feelings for him weren't his imagination getting the better of him, maybe she was doing this to get rid of him the simplest way possible... which made no sense as he fully planned to continue their relationship after he and the Agency had gone their separate ways.

"That is something else you will need to ask her, as I have no answer for you." Claire turned away her irritation showing in her stance.

"Can you... will you find out if it can be reversed? Ask Alyx about it?" Darien requested cautiously, not wanting to invoke her ire any more than he already had.

"Since she will want to know why I am requesting the information, which I will tell her, you might as well ask her yourself and cut out the middle-man." Claire's hands clenched and unclenched as she spoke. Damn, the good doctor was _pissed_ about this. Though he had to wonder if it was about not knowing the answers, or him asking the questions. "Now, do you wish to begin today, or not?"

"Not," he finally said, wishing he understood why she was angry with him, aside from the sudden change of heart, he hadn't done anything wrong he was aware of, but being a male, he might have done one of those guy things that pisses off all women without realizing it. "Sorry," he said meekly.

Claire sighed heavily and turned about to face him. "No need, this is a huge decision, it would be wise of you to take your time to make it. It will wait for another day."

But would it? If he waited... who knew how long would this particular removal technique still work. "Will it?" he asked, fearing her answer.

"Will what?"

He sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly. Yeah, this might go better if he spoke in complete sentences instead of half-formed thoughts. "If I wait will the removal still work?"

She pondered a moment, then nodded. "Provided there have been no major changes within the gland, yes."

"Even if I waited a few years?" He'd planned to say months, but years is what escaped past his lips and he had no idea why.

"It should, why?" she asked, her brows knitting together in concern. "Is there something else you wish to talk about, Darien?"

He shook his head. "Not right now, Keep. I... I guess I need to think about this for a bit first, is all."

"All right. I'll inform the Official you are back on duty until you make a decision, yes?" She looked at him as if expecting him to balk at being put back on the job until such time as he decided to get this started.

"Works." He ducked his head, wishing he could explain to her what had just happened, but since he didn't have a clue himself, felt it was the better part of valor to leave the words unsaid. "Thanks, Claire."

"Any time."

.

After spending a couple hours doing paperwork with Hobbes, as they actually had several pending cases, all of which were in a state of hold until they had more information, information that they would normally be relying on Eberts to get for them as it was pretty much all electronic in nature. They had been told not to bother Alyx with it, even though she had offered, and the assistant du jour was so far in over his head he was still trying to sort out last weeks stack of papers before even considering looking at the current ones. Hobbes had some skills with the computer, but nothing like the former right-hand-geek, so searches were moving along slowly. They had a couple leads they planned on running down later in the day, but needed the Official's official signature on some paperwork before they could head out.

So when the big boys broke for a late lunch, Hobbes pounced on the 'Fish while Darien pounced on Alyx, who hurried off to her office with him trailing along like a lost puppy. Once inside with the door shut, she gave him a brilliant smile and a kiss that eased that odd ache in his chest that had been hanging about since talking with Claire down in the Keep. She went to her printer and picked up the stack of papers that had been spewed out at some point during the day, stuffed them into a folder, and handed them to him.

"This should make the rest of your day go a bit smoother."

He took the pile of papers with a bemused expression on his face. "Huh?"

She just laughed softly and waved at the file. "Trust me."

He opened the folder and glanced at the printouts. It took no time at all for him to realize this was the very data Hobbes had requested, been refused, and then tried to track down on their own all day with very limited success. "When'd you pull this off?"

She shrugged. "I _can_ multitask, and most of the talking wasn't being done by me, anyway. I've just been sitting there, playing Sudoku and waiting for them to decide when I can get started." She sat on the edge of his desk facing him. "What can I do for you?"

She'd obviously figured out he was here for a reason, a reason other than the papers he now held in his hand since he hadn't known a thing about them until a few moments before. He just wondered if she knew exactly why. "How long is your day looking to be?" he asked. Might as well get to it, better to know now that it might be a couple days before she had a couple hours to spare for him, 'cause there was no way this discussion could be done in a couple minutes. Well, maybe it could be, but not to his entire satisfaction.

She tipped her head to the side. "A few more hours, why?"

It was almost four in the afternoon, which meant she didn't expect to get away until early evening at best. "Wanted to talk to you about some stuff is all, but it can wait if you need to focus on the job."

She smiled at him and shook her head. "Job doesn't actually start for a few days yet, so you can have me for the evening without a problem. Meet at my place at eight?"

"I'll be there," he agreed, then, "Should I bring a bag?" Meaning an overnight bag so _he_ wouldn't have to do the walk of shame tomorrow; provided she had any interest in a sleepover that involved little in the way of actual sleep.

She blinked slowly, a drowsy look to her eyes that caused heat to settle low in his gut. "If you like."

"Of course, I like," he told her, stepping forward until directly in front of her. "Should I bring anything else?"

"Just yourself and a craving for rabbit food. I'm in the mood for antipasto tonight. I have the feeling I'll be eating on the run a lot during this job." One hand came up to settle against his stomach, the muscles tightening in a reaction he could in no way control.

"You and your need to eat healthy, it'll be the death of me yet." He smiled in amusement, then took her hand and lifted it to his lips to kiss her fingers lingeringly. He'd much rather take her home right now, but duty called for both of them. "I'll bring the wine, 'kay?"

"Perfect. Now scoot, I know you and Bobby have work to do." She gave him a mock shove, and sidled away, allowing him to hold her hand until she had moved out of reach.

"Thanks, babe," he told her with all due sincerity, certain the data in his hand would save him and Hobbes hours of legwork.

"Welcome." In the hallway they parted ways, her trotting back to the Official's office as he watched, a soft sigh escaping once she had rounded the corner.

How could it be that five minutes with her and everything in his world felt right? It shouldn't have been possible, yet she proved it time and time again without even trying.

Whistling happily, he headed back to the office he shared with Hobbes, tapping the file into the palm of his hand.

.

Darien arrived at her place with his arms so full he would need to use his elbow to hit the buzzer for her door as there was no way he'd be able grab the handle, much less dig his keys out of his pocket without losing at least one of the items he carried. Over his right shoulder was his overnight bag, stuffed with the bare necessities. He and Alyx weren't quite to the point of sharing closet space though it was close. She'd left some items at his apartment once it had been deemed safe to move back to her place. Safe being a relative term that is. He would have been just fine with her staying indefinitely, but he got that she wasn't ready for that. She had been more than appreciative of his willingness to put her up for a couple of weeks at the Official's request, and she'd made every effort to make little or no impact on his life. Which he appreciated even while it disconcerted him. He'd never had a girlfriend, live-in or not, that hadn't tried to make some change in his living arrangements until Alyx. He made every effort to return the favor, leaving only what he'd come to term emergency supplies at her place for those nights when the excrement hit the rotating blades and it was more convenient to change at her place than his. It had happened just often enough to make sense and not seem like they were intruding on each other's personal space. He hoped that the sharing of closet space would be happening soon, he liked the idea of being able to spend a long lazy weekend at her apartment without have to run home for a change of underwear. 'Sides she had the nicer shower... hell, bathroom and he liked the perk of being able to use it as he wished.

Alyx liked her privacy and while he wanted to share her life, had learned the hard way that he needed to do it on her terms. So far, things had worked out okay, and they were slowly intertwining their lives a bit more as time progressed. He wasn't about to try to rush their relationship, she was wary enough without his risking pushing her away by doing something excessively stupid... like asking her to marry him again. That was a hot potato that he remained as far away from as possible. He still wanted that... more than he'd ever thought possible, and though he didn't really understand why she didn't, he had decided not to push. Those ten days he'd remained stubborn, stuck to his guns, and stayed away from her, so very hurt and angry, had been some of the worst days in recent memory. His life was so much brighter with her in it and he'd do everything in his power to keep her there.

She had given him a key after all; that there was a huge step for her and he made every effort to not abuse the privilege. Juggling the box in his arms that contained the two bottles of wine - a merlot and a rose - and dessert he'd picked up spontaneously, he barely managed to get the security gate for the elevator up without losing some of the goodies. The wine shop they liked - Bacchus - had a new neighbor two doors down that made the most decadent looking desserts he'd ever laid eyes upon. He'd chosen a tray of assorted bits and pieces - last slices of about a dozen different cakes and pies - when he'd been unable to choose a single one. She'd probably grouch about the empty calories, but that wouldn't stop her from indulging. His metabolism, thanks to genetics and the gland, burned off calories almost faster than he could take them in. Granted, he made every effort to stay in shape, turning those sugar filled calories into muscle instead of flab, but he still tended to lose weight instead of gain. Those empty calories wouldn't hurt him much, but in recent months he'd made a greater effort to eat healthy and, like Alyx, only hit fast food joints when the job forced him to it.

The door slid open even as he tried to shift everything just right in order to hit the buzzer, and before he could blink, much less say "hi" Alyx had the box out of his arms. She smiled at him and strode away, her curves now tucked into a pair of Levi's and a deep purple tank top, the tiny straps telling him that there was most certainly nothing being worn under said shirt. The jeans hung loose and low on her hips, which meant she'd dropped more weight in recent days and he knew she'd bought that particular pair while staying at his place. The unexpected loss of weight after taking a bullet in her lower abdomen creating a need for new clothes she'd felt free in indulging in. They'd fit when she'd bought them all of two weeks ago and now she needed to downsize again. She'd be shopping in the kiddie department if this kept up. Her recent injury had taken more out of her than she'd been willing to admit, obviously.

While not built long and lean like himself, she'd never been anything but skinny in all the time he'd known her. Athletic, he'd call it, muscles well-defined with no real fat anywhere on her body, yet she remained curvaceous as well... somehow. Almost as if there were an ideal size programmed into her and that weird adaptive ability of hers stuck to it no matter what. She only seemed to lose weight when injured or working far harder than normal, and the former was most certainly true and the latter looked to be starting up again what with her being outsourced to other agencies on her first day back at full duty. He was going to miss being able to see her pretty much any time he wanted, he liked having her around, but given the job still had to come first in their lives, he would treasure the moments he had with her and try not to complain too bitterly when he couldn't.

He set his bag on the floor next to the door, removed his jacket, and hung it up before following her. For all that she'd spent almost no time here in the last few weeks, the place didn't look abandoned, her cleaning service had plainly been by to set the place to rights. Tonight the lights were turned low, candles in various shapes and sizes sat on the windowsills adding a subtle golden cast to the light in the room. The table was set, with yet more candles, giving the whole place an unexpected romantic flair. Not her usual style and he could only wonder what was up. He recognized the take out containers on the table from her new favorite Italian place, _In Vino Veritas_, which, according to one Bobby Hobbes, was Mob run. Alyx didn't seem to care who ran the place so long as the food coming out of their kitchen remained within her high standards of quality. Darien couldn't argue and was more than happy to eat the food no matter how exorbitant the price she willingly paid. Their antipasto was amazing and not nearly as healthy as one would expect given the amount of cheese and meat involved, but the greenery was fresh and the dressing made on site and more than worth the price of admission. She'd also picked up garlic knots and what looked like eggplant parmesan, if his nose wasn't mistaken, which made his stomach growl loudly.

"What the devil is Temptations?" Alyx asked from the kitchen where she was unpacking the box of goodies.

"Exactly what is sounds like, a shop a couple door down from Bacchus and home to some of the most disgustingly fattening desserts I have ever had the pleasure to lay eyes upon," he answered sidling up behind and wrapping his arms about her. He sighed in pleasure when she leaned back against him, her body a warm, strong presence against his. " 'I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.' "

Alyx snickered. "Mae West, I do believe. And it isn't often you resist temptation, bub."

_True 'nuff._ " 'The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.' And much like Oscar, I'd rather yield than have my soul grow sick with longing."

Alyx shook her head. "You silly, silly man." The corks magically wiggled themselves loose from the bottles of wine as she removed the tray of goodies from the fancy bag it had been put in.

"You are going to eat dinner and then indulge in Temptation." He buried his face in her hair, her current flavor of shampoo smelling like vanilla. "You've lost weight again."

She sighed and turned about in his arms. "So the good Keeper has informed me. Not that it matters all that much, healing just redirected my energy is all. I'll be back at fighting weight in no time at all, promise."

"I'm gonna hold you to that." Then he kissed her and thoughts of anything other than the woman currently in his arms drifted away, even the need for sustenance became a distant memory. All he wanted at that very moment was her, and lucky for him he had her, all to himself.

He released her with a soft sigh. "How bad was your day?" he asked, wondering for how long she was going to be dragged away this time.

She handed him the bottles of wine while she grabbed glasses and urged him towards the table. "Fine. Boring mostly. They're still in the slow dissemination of information stage, which the Official loves, 'cause they're paying for every minute of my time, but is driving me slowly insane. They seem to be unable to comprehend that I not only have an IQ above thirty, but actually am the high-end geek they need to complete this job." She shrugged. "Not the first time my being a girl has been a detriment on the job, but they seem to have this preconceived notion of what a hacker looks like and I don't fit the bill."

Darien set the bottles down, took the glasses from her, and poured some of the rose into each. "So fit it. Maybe that'll get things moving and you can get this job over with."

She tipped her head to the side clearly mulling his words over with care. "Oh, I _like_ that idea. Goth hacker chick, complete with piercings in places that should never be pierced might just get their attention. I'm gonna need to go shopping in the morning." She laughed softly and waved for him to sit, as she began serving the food. "I'll make sure to blame you when the Official asks what the hell I was thinking."

"Gee, thanks," Darien snarked, but with a grin. Anytime he could push the Fat Man's buttons, he would do so, even if only by proxy. "So, where're you heading off to?"

She sipped the wine, shaking her head as she set the glass back down. "Nowhere. In fact I'll probably be able to sleep in my own bed most nights... or yours, if you like."

"Oh, I like."

She chuckled softly. "I can't go into details, but this job is going to take a few weeks. What they want is damn near impossible... but should be doable."

"I take it, it's one of those things where your simpatico with computers will come into play?" Darien just barely understood how she could _talk_ to computers, but knew it allowed her to manipulate them in ways no ordinary programmer or hacker could. And that put her in a class all her own, to put it mildly. It also meant that when the impossible was needed, they came to her... or rather the Official to beg for but a moment of her services. For top dollar, of course.

"Yep. Which also means I'm not likely to get shot, as I'll have big burly jarheads near me at all times." She stabbed at a tomato quarter. "Oh yay."

"Hey, if it keeps you in one piece and able to come home at night, I'll take it," he told her in all sincerity. After losing her - firmly and with all his heart believing that Eberts had killed her - he'd hire bodyguards to surround her day and night, if he thought she would permit it. But their lives didn't allow for such things. In fact, it was their job to put their lives on the line for that notion of the greater good, keeping that multitude of mundanes safe and protected, allowing them to go on with their tiny lives unaware of the real dangers lurking around the corner... or under the bed. Hell, she'd kick him in the shins if he even tried to put her back onto that glass enclosed pedestal she'd once believed he'd put her up on. She'd hadn't really been wrong, but she hadn't been precisely right either. He, being a mostly normal human, had been forced to learn about her the hard way, and occasionally he still misjudged her, making assumptions that were in no way correct. These days he'd take the admonishment, learn from it, and move on. The bumps in the road were more than made up by the long miles of smooth sailing, and, besides, she was worth it.

"Bossman is still being cautious. The gods alone know what info Eb... any of the moles leaked. Sims isn't exactly talking to anyone, and there's no way to know for sure if anyone else at the Agency is working for them. It kinda sucks," she groused, the look on her face as sour as her sudden downturn in mood. Much to his amazement, she shook it off quickly, giving him a smile that made his heart skip a beat. "Enough of my crap. How did your day go?"

"My day?" he repeated around a bite of meat and cheese. "Once you got me that file, just fine. Saved us half a day of leg-work and..." He trailed off as she tipped her head to the side and looked at him in confusion.

"Not that? I know the job went fine. How did _everything else_ go?"

He blinked at her, still not understanding what she was asking for several long moments. Then it hit, she didn't know he hadn't had the shot, the injection that would get him started on the road to glandlessness. That Claire... or the Official, as the Keeper had said she was going to tell him, hadn't filled her in, and he could only wonder why. Plainly, she'd meant it when she said she wouldn't play middleman for him. He hadn't mentioned it to Bobby either, not that his partner had asked, he'd been focused on the job and their current lack of help on it. Only after he'd read the file of information Alyx had provided had his mood improved at all. They'd spent the remainder of the afternoon following the leads she'd provided and actually making some headway in tracking down the thieves. Finding the warm bodies that connected to the electronic data was looking to be a bitch, but they'd wade through the mess and catch them eventually.

"Uh, it didn't?" he finally told her, only able to meet her eyes for a second, feeling oddly guilty considering what he knew.

She remained perfectly still for a long moment, then closed her eyes and shook her head. "Why not?" she asked, as she opened her eyes and aimed a steely gaze at him.

"I, uh, had some questions and Claire said you were the go-to gal for the answers."

That steely gaze went utterly blank at those words, much to his surprise. "And why would Claire tell you that?" Her tone was as blank as her gaze; not revealing even a hint as to what was going on in her mind.

He set his fork down and reached for the glass of wine, drinking a fair portion to cover his sudden feeling of discomfiture. " 'Cause she said it was you who came up with the solution, is that wrong?"

Alyx sighed heavily, one hand coming up to rub her forehead. "Shit," she muttered, much to his dismay. "No, it's not wrong, though I personally didn't do most of the testing... Why on earth did she tell you?" The question had obviously been rhetorical, but he chose to respond to it anyway.

"Because I had a question she couldn't answer," he said softly, wondering why she seemed so unhappy about his finding out she'd done this. "Why didn't you tell me?" It was hard to keep the sudden surge of bitterness out of his voice. He'd tried not to think about how long she must have known about this most of the day. Wondering how long she'd known he could be free and yet had not told him about it. Had it been weeks? Months? She'd played her cards so very close to the vest, at least about this.

_"When you leave, what will you do?"_

Then again, maybe he just hadn't been paying attention. She'd been the instigator of the use of the inhibitor, after all, and revealed she had a source of Counteragent that had nothing to do with the Agency. In other words, he'd known something was going on for months, but had not really allowed it to register other than she had put him before the Agency and it's penny-pinching, leash-tugging budget, put _him_ before the gland. Cared about him, the man, more than as the receptacle. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, pretty sure of what the tenor of her answer would be and even understanding why, so he preempted her response with, "You didn't want to get my hopes up."

She gave him a wan smile. "Exactly," she agreed. "What do you need to know?"

He got the impression that she meant more than just that lone question the Keeper had been unable to answer. "How did you manage this?"

She shrugged. "I put the money I... acquired on my vacation to good use."

He snorted in amusement. "I would say so. But why spend it all on... on me?"

She met his eyes, her look so very, _very_ serious. "So you could have the one thing you deserved above all else: a choice."

He felt an odd rush of heat wash through him at her words. _Damn._ When had she figured that out? When had he given away that the one thing he hated most about this life was that it had been forced on him, that he did what he did, worked at the Agency only because of the blackmail deal still in place. Counteragent for work. The same deal offered to him by the Official while standing over Kevin's grave so very long ago. When it came right down to it, that was still the deal. He worked, he got his shots of Counteragent, even if they were no longer weekly thanks to the inhibitor, and nothing else. The inhibitor Alyx had pushed for, not backing down no matter how hard the Official had pushed back.

She... Alyx was the reason he had as much freedom as he did. Alyx was the reason he could go two weeks without risking insanity, was the reason fear had gone from a constant companion to a distant worry and now... now she would be the reason he could leave the Agency behind and get back to a real life.

"I told you I'd get you out if I could," she said softly when his continued silence seemed to worry her.

"You did. You also said you wouldn't be coming with me." And she wouldn't be, he knew that. She had her reasons for wanting to stay, valid ones he had to admit, and knowing the 'Fish he'd probably forced her hand, made some sort of deal that would keep her at the Agency should Darien leave.

"And I won't be," she admitted, if reluctantly. "I-"

Darien reached out and took her hand, silencing her. "How much did you give up to get me this choice?" He wouldn't be able to live with himself if she'd been forced to sell her soul to the Fat Man. He wasn't worth her indentured servitude to the Agency, not by a long shot.

"Nothing I wasn't willing to part with," she assured him. "I backed him into a corner. I find the moles and he, or the Keeper would tell you about the removal. Or I would." She gave his hand a squeeze then entwined their fingers, her thumb rubbing gently along the heel of his hand.

And he knew her, she would have told him had the 'Fish balked on his end of the deal. Then again, she had damn near gotten killed finding out who was feeding intel to her husband's employers. "You got shot to give me this chance?"

"No... well, okay technically yes, but that hadn't been the original game plan." She smiled at him, a real smile that made her eyes light up in the candlelight. "I gave the info to the boss almost three months ago and he sat on it, kept Claire from even looking at it. Then the mess with your family came up, which led to the discovery that we had moles at the Agency... I made certain to use it to my... your advantage. I would have told you sooner, but the Official asked that it wait until I was cleared for duty." The pleading tone that had crept into her voice meant she hoped he'd understand; that he wouldn't get angry with her for holding things back as he had on other occasions. Occasions where the info she'd let slip out had turned out to be useless. They'd had other leads, including those planted by Arnaud, but not a single one had been of any real use in getting the gland out. So, instead, she'd struck out on her own, using that incredible mind of hers to find a solution, one that would actually work, and she'd done it. And one that, if Claire's assumptions were correct would work anytime in the foreseeable future. Which led back to the reason for this discussion in the first place.

He lifted their hands and kissed her fingers, eliciting a tiny sigh of relief from her as he allowed her to feel that he was not upset with her for keeping this a secret for so long. Hell, she'd beat the Fat Man at his own game to give him this chance. "Claire said that this could be done anytime. A day, a year wouldn't matter. That true?"

Alyx nodded slowly. "Unless something happens to the gland, yes."

Claire had said the same thing, but he wasn't certain what it meant. "What do you mean by that? How could the gland change?"

Alyx got up, still holding his hand and shifted to sit in the chair kitty-corner from him, scooting the chair over so she was right next to him. He turned slightly to face her. "For example: if we were to discover the genes that cause the Madness toxin and eliminate them, this particular inhibiting agent probably would not work to shut down the gland. We'd need to do some modifications to it, which would take a few months, but that's about it."

_Discover the genes that cause the madness? What the hell?_ "Is... is that something you're working on? Getting rid of the Madness?"

"Yes, of course it is. Though it's not really necessary anymore, is it?" She looked so earnest that he couldn't help but smile at her.

"No, I guess not. Unless Arnie starts churning out more glands, then it might be useful to save the poor sots who get stuck with the defective merchandise." Oh, that would be a bad thing. A bunch of Arnie controlled invisible men all with a high risk of going red-eye on a regular basis. That... that was just too scary to contemplate. The reality would be so very much worse.

"I will make every effort to keep that from happening." Her look so serious he couldn't help but laugh, which got her to crack a tiny smile.

"Claire gave me the exceedingly stupid version of how this is gonna work, which I get, but I wanted to know if it could be reversed." He was almost afraid to hear the answer, so when she blinked at him, confusion coloring her gaze, he could only wonder what he'd done this time.

"Um, once the gland is out that's kind of it. We might, and I stress _might_, be able to implant another one, but I can't imagine you wanting to do that, like... ever." Alyx sounded completely bewildered and he realized he hadn't phrased the question very well at all.

He laughed and tapped her on the nose with his free hand. "No, I meant with the whole shutting the gland down thing. Can it be reversed, say half-way through?"

Her mouth opened in a silent _oh_ of understanding even as her brows knit together in thought. "In theory, yes, but only to a point."

"And what point might that be?"

She settled back into her chair, reaching for her glass of wine, which she sipped at as she considered how best to answer the question. "This is my best guess, mind you."

He nodded in what he hoped would be encouragement.

"Once it reaches the point where the gland can no longer produce Quicksilver externally, then no, it cannot be reversed. Any time prior to that, then... maybe."

"Why maybe?" He really was curious, wanted to know all his options before he made what might be an utterly life-changing decision.

"Because this scenario wasn't something I considered," she explained, with a shrug of her shoulders. "Provided the gland is still producing Quicksilver, stopping the treatment would probably allow it to return to full functionality within a reasonable amount of time." She tipped her head to the side. "It wouldn't be overnight, I can say that much. Worst case scenario we'd trying tricking it back into working with a high dose of adrenaline. Hmmm... I'll make some calls in the morning. At the very least, we can get some simulations running to see if it's even feasible. Though I have to wonder why you'd even consider reversing it."

Now that would be a tough question to answer. "Options, babe. Wanted to keep them open, is all."

She nodded, but he could tell she didn't believe him. "You're going to go through with it, aren't you?"

"Do you want me to?" he asked, afraid there could be an ulterior motive behind her creating this solution for him. Something more than just giving him a choice that, until yesterday, he hadn't had.

She shook her head. "No. I will not have my wants influencing your decision."

"Alyx? You want me to leave?"

She cupped his face with her hands, fingers cool against his skin. "What I want is for you to be happy, no more no less." She kissed him lightly. "You know that, know what I would do for you. Whatever you decide; stay or go, I will back you completely with no questions asked. But I won't tell you what to do... or what I want." She dropped her hands away, as if unsure if he wanted her near. "You did that for me when I had the chance to leave, I will do no less for you."

Well... shit. Not that he'd forgotten his giving her the option of heading back to her kids, all but telling her to escape, to take the chance to get her real life back, no matter how much it might hurt him personally, but he hadn't realized the impression it had made on her. At the time it had been the right thing... the _only_ thing to do. She'd missed her kids terribly, missed her family; brothers and nieces and nephews with an ache on her heart he could feel, but when given the choice _she had stayed_. And her staying had led to this, to him having that same option being granted to him, and it came down to just two choices: stay or go.

And right at this moment he didn't know which he would choose.

Yesterday he'd been ready to get the hell out of Dodge, to have his time at the Agency to be nothing more than a memory, and not one of his better ones - except for certain parts, and those he planned to take along with him on the outside. Coming to the Agency had gained him a few things, friends he cared about and who cared about him, he wasn't about to give them up for anything in the world. He was, he could now admit, if only to himself, a better person for having met them, and as he'd told Claire the night before, he couldn't go back, which meant he would move forward, with all of them by his side.

"Alyx-"

"Any other questions?" she cut in, as if she wanted no part of hearing what he'd been about to say.

He shook his head. "Not tonight. You'll look into the reversal thing?"

"Yep, I'll sic my people on it first thing in the morning," she assured him. "Now eat, I'm not the only one who loses weight without trying."

He grumbled under his breath about nagging girlfriends, at which she laughed, then dug into the repast laid out before them, allowing the conversation to move onto more mundane subjects that didn't involve life-changing decisions.

.

"_What happened?" I asked, surprised that my voice could be heard at all._

"_She took a bullet saving some kids," Bobby muttered._

"_Hobbes," Dani growled, sounding just like her mother._

"_The sniper was shooting at me," he admitted, giving his current partner a glare._

"_He doesn't like to admit that she saved his ass yet again," Eberts commented with a sad smile._

_Just like her. Always thinking of others first. Never hesitating when it came to protecting other's lives, including her partners'. On more than one occasion, she had taken an injury to protect the two of us, and apparently that hadn't changed in the last five years. Not that I would have expected it to. "What can I do?"_

"_Save her, we hope," Mike explained, coming up next to me._

"_Answer something first, Eberts," I requested softly, turning to him._

"_Anything within reason," he offered with surprising equanimity._

"_Why wouldn't she see me?" I had wanted to know the answer to this question for five long years. Maybe now I could find out._

"_It was her decision, but Charlie and I agreed with her." Eberts sat down in one of the chairs. "Do you remember what had happened, oh... three months before you got the gland out?"_

_I thought back for a moment, remembering my last few months with the Agency. "Her husband showed up and raised hell here."_

"_Exactly. It took us three years before we found out who he worked for and were able to eliminate the problem," Eberts detailed._

"_What does... did that have to do with me?" I asked._

"_Fawkes, you were a civilian, and she had some super secret organization hunting her down. She did the only thing she could do," Bobby answered, coming over to me._

_I stared through the glass at the tiny figure lying so still, so quiet on that bed. "She stayed away to protect me."_

"_And by the time the threat was over you had moved on, to all appearances. She didn't want to interfere," Dani commented from somewhere off to my left._

"_What can I do?" I asked again._

"_Talk to her," Mike pleaded._

"_Just sit with her," Eberts requested._

"_Tell her how you feel about her, finally," Bobby stated flatly._

"_Give her a reason to live," Dani explained._

"_A reason to live?" I turned to the young woman who was so like the one in the next room, and yet so very different._

"_Those tubes and wires are the only things keeping her alive. That and a big dose of inhibitor. She turned off the machines three times before we got any synthesized," Mike told him._

"_And what makes you think I can do anything?" _

"_What makes you think you can't?" Eberts countered, almost as a challenge._

This time it was the chirping of the alarm clock that woke him, yanking him rudely from sleep, but thankfully away from that damn dream again. He sat up rubbing his face in his hands and shoved himself back against the headboard, a growl of irritation drawn from him as he reached over to shut off the alarm. He definitely wasn't tempted to go back to sleep, as he had learned the hard way that once begun the dream would play itself out to the end awoken mid-way through or not. Stupid thing just picked up where it left off, like a VCR on pause. It had made it nearly to the end anyway, with him knowing it was Alyx who lay barely alive on that hospital bed, unable to die and apparently no longer wishing to live.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the message his sleeping mind kept sending him. He was slowly remembering more and more of it as time and repetition left its impressions on him. Much like other Quicksilver dreams he'd had there were things his mind had gotten wrong, like Eberts still being with the Agency. That would never happen, given he was locked up in an Agency nuthouse at the moment, undergoing interrogation and supposedly deprogramming in an effort to ascertain who exactly had been pulling his puppet strings all this time.

Then there was the whole sleeping for a month after the gland had been yanked out, which, from what he'd gathered, wouldn't be necessary this time around. They'd be breaking the addictions prior to the surgery, which meant no need for his body to adjust to the chemicals that would no longer be flooding it. That step would already be complete. The exact opposite of when it had been implanted. Kevin had put him into an induced coma to allow his body to adjust to all the chemicals, the Quicksilver, the Alpha and Beta reagents now coursing through his system. Of course, Kev hadn't known about the little toxin addition, but that was neither here nor there at the time. This time Darien would sleep for a few days at most, waking up with stitches still in place and that unwelcome guest in the back of his skull gone for good.

Simple, or so it seemed on the surface. He gathered that the withdrawal wouldn't be fun, but he'd endure it if it got him out of this mess he'd found himself in. So, was he gonna do this after all?

Shit, he had no clue what to do, or why the damn dream kept battering about the insides of his skull. He sank down into the mattress, eyes still closed as he attempted to bring the images back into focus, for a change they obliged him instead of slipping away, like water through his fingers.

"_She stayed away to protect me."_

Darien eyes snapped open, words with his voice, his mournful gaze looking through the glass to the tiny figure on the bed beyond. Would she, would Alyx do that? Would she really shut him out of her life? Could she? He tossed off the covers, actually glad she had already left for the day, he might do something stupid like ask her if she'd do that. If she'd, after finally agreeing to wear his ring, after making those promises to him while they had been in Cold Springs, throw away all they had, all they were just because he no longer had the gland and worked for the Agency.

He suspected she would. Would walk away, would endure the hurt and pain of being away from him to protect him. Just as she did for her family. Fuck. That was not part of his plan. He didn't want a life without her, he'd come to realize that simple truth only when faced with her death. Just because he'd fucked up the handling of their relationship time and time again, didn't mean he didn't want it. Hell, it made him want it more, wanted to do whatever it took to keep them together... including keeping the gland?

He got out of bed, feeling oddly angry. This wasn't fucking fair. Why should he have to choose one over the other, why couldn't he have both, friends and freedom, the people he... that he loved the most sharing the life he chose to live, instead of watching him endure one he hated and feared. He stalked across the room, his feet thumping against the wood of the floor until he stood before her heavy bag. Lashing out with his right, he connected hard enough to bruise his knuckles, but instead of doing the wise thing and stopping, he continued, throwing anger fueled punches to burn off the frustration and confusion that twisted his insides into knots.

Stupid fucking dream. Why was it so fucking important to know what _might_ happen five years from now? What would it gain him? What would he lose? What difference would it make if he were there? Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of things, if he chose to stay he could very well be shot six months from now, having changed nothing of value in this ephemeral, maybe future.

Panting, knuckles aching, he grabbed the bag, leaning into it, holding on as if for dear life. Yes, she had given him a choice, but it seemed as if realities were conspiring to nullify it. Damned and alone if he did, glanded and mad if didn't. Fate twisting her threads to make what should be the best news in recent history, worthless.

Grumbling imprecations under his breath at the unfairness of it all, he shoved away from the bag and headed for the shower. Maybe the dream was full of shit, maybe he was just subconsciously coming up with excuses to stay, reasons that had no bearing on reality. He couldn't ask Alyx, she would give him the same line as before, refusing to answer so as not to influence his ultimate decision. But there were others he could talk to and it might just be worth doing so. Knowing all his options, what would really happen the day he walked out that door gland free seemed to be a good thing to know about now. He could only hope Bobby would be willing to tell it to him straight.

.

"Why does this have to be so fucking complex?" Hobbes snarled from the back of the van, where he attempted to get the laptop on the table to give up the information he wanted. Darien sighed heavily and turned about in his seat to look at his partner who appeared about ready to shoot the computer with his Colt if it wouldn't give up the goods. "We need the kid for this job."

Darien agreed wholeheartedly, but Alyx was off playing with the jarheads, making computers sing in Swahili, or the like. She'd been unable to go into details on those few occasions they'd crossed paths over the last week, but had done what she could to help him and Bobby in her spare time. Much as expected, she'd been a regular guest at both the Agency and his place, the job not requiring her to go full immersion undercover, though she had taken to playing the part. The first time he'd seen her in her Goth hacker chick costume he'd done a double take. She looked all of fifteen with the heavily applied black eyeliner, her hair forced into perfect ringlets a la Shirley Temple, with black streaks that she had assured him were only temporary. The all black clothing and accessories adorned with spikes and rivets seemed to do the trick at shaking the disbelief of her skills from those who had hired her. She'd been going for professional and getting treated like a newbie, the moment she showed up dressed for a Goth rave they sat up straight and listened, which allowed her to get to the actual work part of the job. Much to the disconcerted amusement of the Official... or so the water cooler gossip went.

He wasn't sure what she planned to do with the clothes after the job was over, but he was hoping to convince her to wear those skin tight boots that came up over her knees to his place one night, with no intentions of letting her take them off. Should definitely be an interesting evening of fun.

Right now, however, he wished almost as fervently that she were available to work this damn job. He was only mediocre with a computer, Bobby was decent with programs he knew how to use, tracing an IP address back to the source had turned out to be a bit out of his normal range of talents even with the gear Alyx had scored for them. It did the actual work, but still required input from them, trouble was finding that information, and it was there they'd been getting stuck.

They had a list of handles they were trying to follow back to the human, or humans, behind them, knew they liked using the free WiFi popping up everywhere to anonymize their evil doings, and knew they were causing havoc hacking into databases and stealing the data, erasing it so completely that it had been unrecoverable on the servers in question. What was being stolen was being kept very hush-hush, to the point where he and Hobbes had no clue what it was, never mind where it had been stolen from, only that it had to be retrieved. Yeah, like that was a big help. Hobbes punched a few keys, with a tad more force than needed in Darien's opinion, then swore as the screen went blank. "Oh for Pete's sake," he groused.

"Bobby, maybe if you stopped beating on the poor thing it would cooperate with you." Darien eeled his way into the back and squatted down next to his partner, who looked about ready to blow a gasket.

"We need a geek for this," Hobbes grumbled, glaring at the computer monitor with murder in his eye. "I'd even put up with Eberts at this point."

Now that was bad. Hobbes had mentioned the former right hand man only once or twice since being revealed as a mole, usually with a snarked, 'I knew something was hinky about him,' thrown in. So, if Hobbes was saying they needed the uber geek now, then he was most certainly in over his head. Which meant they'd be getting nowhere fast without serious help. Darien had made sure to read the basics on how to run this program, an off-the-shelf model modded all to hell by Alyx for occasions just such as this, and with, what he had thought anyway, were fairly simple instructions. He looked at the ominously dark screen and tried the F12 button, which promptly brought the previous screen back to life. That only seemed to make Hobbes crankier. "Call Alyx," Darien suggested, "if she can, she'll answer. She said she'd help."

Hobbes shook his head. "The Boss said to leave her be. I _can_ do this, it's just a bit beyond my usual skill set is all." He proceeded to punch a few keys, without trying to punch them _through_ the keyboard, thankfully, and finally achieved success. All sorts of data began to scroll across the screen and Hobbes grunted in satisfaction. "You ain't exactly the King of Geek either, my friend."

Darien settled on the floor of the van with a shrug. "No, I'm not, but I'm learning. Alyx tries to keep things simple for dumb schlubs like me."

That earned him a chuckle, and an easing of the tension that had begun to build in the dark interior of the van. "The kid doing okay?"

Darien nodded. "Just fine, the hours for her current gig are weird, to put it mildly, but we say 'hi' every chance we get."

Hobbes snorted. "That the newest euphemism? Saying 'hi?' "

Darien laughed softly. "For this week it is."

"And how are you doing, partner, things all copasetic with the whole gland thing?" He waved vaguely at Darien. "Any idea when you'll be put on restricted duty?"

Darien realized with a shock that he'd never told Bobby he hadn't done the proverbial deed. Once things had started rolling with the case, it had just kept going, and the subject hadn't really come up until now. And, clearly, the Keeper had kept it to herself and not shared with Hobbesy. Oh man, this was not going to go over well. He scratched the back of his head in consternation. "Um, I haven't done anything yet. Doubt the boss would let me out on a job as big as he says this one is if my ability go invisible could crap out at any moment." A slight exaggeration, but not by much, if he had gone through with it and everything had been going as planned he'd be within days of being unable to Quicksilver.

Hobbes just nodded and said, "Ah, that explains a few things." He glanced over at the screen then back at Darien. "Why not?"

_Wish I had an answer for that._ He shrugged. "I had some questions I wanted answered first, is all."

"You get your answers?" Hobbes asked, pretending to sound disinterested in the whole thing.

"Not all of 'em," Darien admitted. "You willing to give me a few?"

Hobbes pondered for a moment then nodded. "I'll give you what I can, but it's not like I know anything about how they're gonna get it out of your thick skull."

Darien managed a soft laugh, wishing there were an easier way to go about this. "You'd probably just use a drill and pair of needle nose pliers." That earned him a snort of amusement. "So, say I have it done, the gland is out, I'm no longer an agent, then what? They just turn me loose on the streets?"

"You're making the bold assumption you'll be turned loose at all. I seem to recall you being in on a third strike when you cut that deal with your bro." Hobbes' voice might have been bland, but it certainly struck a cord of fear within Darien's heart, his stomach clenching convulsively and making him glad it had been a few hours since he'd eaten.

"But that was the deal, test the gland for a pardon." His very own memory chose to betray him then, replaying that scene with Kevin in solitary on that fateful day.

_As in a possible pardon, if you'll do it._

Just to make it all so much worse Hobbes added, "You get that in writing?"

"Oh. Crap," Darien mumbled, the truth of the situation hitting him like a sledgehammer into his chest. He could end up back in prison; there to serve out a life sentence with no possibility of parole and that... that was the last thing he wanted. He'd run before going back to that hell. He felt the blood drain from his face, the interior of the van suddenly too hot, too tight, too closed in. Gathering himself to make a break for it, outside into the light of a sunny Southern California day he froze when Hobbes chuckled.

"The look on your face, my friend. Priceless." Hobbes shook his head and patted Darien on the arm in a gesture of comfort that didn't actually comfort, it just caused confusion instead. "Do you really think I'd let the boss man do that to you? Or the kid for that matter?" He laughed then, apparently finding Darien's sudden terror highly amusing.

"Shit, Hobbes, you trying to scare me?" His fingers and toes felt ice cold and a glance down revealed the digits of his hands to be coated in Quicksilver. He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out to a slow count of ten, trying to convince his heart to back down to something under one hundred twenty beats per minute. It wasn't easy on this occasion, the threat, a joke or not, of being sent back to prison had scared the living shit out of him. Once the Quicksilver finally flaked away, he looked up to meet Hobbes' eyes.

"You were gonna rabbit," Bobby stated with a tiny shake of his head. "Kinda silly to do that _before_ you get deglanded, my friend."

Darien managed a shaky laugh. "Let's call it a knee-jerk reaction. With you being the jerk trying to get a reaction." Darien tried for light, but couldn't stop the quaver in his voice that signaled he'd been well and truly shaken by the comment. Prison was _not_ an option.

Hobbes chuckled, taking the jibe in stride. " 'Sides if the Bossman tried to do that to ya, the kid'd just make you disappear and you'd find yourself on a sunny beach with cabana boys," Darien shot him a warning glare, "and girls waiting on your every whim. And you know it."

Okay, couldn't really deny that, Alyx probably would sneak him out of the country, maybe to some island in the Bahamas, where he could wile away his time working on his tan and sipping mojitos. Might be boring, and not what he had planned, but he'd make it work, if it kept him out of Bakersfield. Hell, it was that bone deep fear of prison that had gotten him into this mess in the first place. "Yeah, I know it, but not exactly how I want go out, y'know?" He rubbed the back of his neck, noting as his arm moved by the four green segments remaining. He was gonna need a shot if he had to go invisible for any length of time on this job. Needed to remember to stop by the Keep and make sure Claire had a fresh batch brewing on the stove.

"With your shield or on it, huh?"

"Something like that, but now you got me worried it won't be that simple," Darien told his friend, allowing just a touch of the concern he was feeling leak into his voice.

Hobbes shrugged. "It will be... and it won't be. The real question is: are you sure to want to leave?"

"Uh, that's pretty much what I've wanted since day one," Darien reminded.

Hobbes shook his head in obvious disagreement. "No, you've wanted the gland out, that ain't the same thing."

Darien snorted in laughter. "Like the Fat Man would keep me on without the gland? Even I _know_ he ain't that desperate."

Hobbes just shrugged and turned away to the computer. "Maybe, maybe not, but my point stands. According to Claire she can take out the gland pretty much anytime, why leave now?"

"Why not?" Darien snapped back with, his voice shockingly loud in the confines of the van. "This was never what I wanted... it's not who I am."

"No, it's not who you _were_," Hobbes pointed out far to astutely for Darien's taste. "I don't think you've figured out who you _are_ quite yet, but you're getting there. Why not _be_ the invisible man? Why not stay at the Agency and do some more good for the world?"

"The 'Fish must have put you up to this, 'cause you're sounding an awful lot like a recruitment poster, my friend." There was something going on with Bobby, but for the life of him, he had no idea what... or where he was going with this convoluted line of reasoning.

"Nope, but you asked and I'm answering." He settled back into the chair a bit more deeply, not looking directly at Darien. "You're good, I don't think you realize how good. Your style is a tad unorthodox, but it works. Works for me, and for the Agency." Now Bobby turned to face him, look dead serious. "I think we could do a lot more good, but not if you bail now."

Darien felt his heart skip a beat, getting that Bobby meant the words, and not just as Agent Robert Hobbes, but as his friend. And that meant Bobby wanted him to stay, wanted their partnership and friendship to continue and that was worth more than gold to Darien. But it didn't really help his dilemma, in fact, it made it that much harder. Now he understood why Alyx had refused to do this very thing, refused allow her wants and needs influence him in any way. It had hurt, hearing her say that her opinion didn't matter when it very much did to him, but he understood... and that made it easier to accept. Not wanting to admit that Hobbes had just added another twist to this stay or go saga, he intentionally waved off Hobbes' praise as if it meant nothing. "Right. How long did it take me to catch on? Alyx blew my shitty skills out of the water."

Hobbes growled... actually growled at him. "She don't count, she cheated. You... you had to work for it and, in less than a year, you had the game down. You've only gotten better since then."

Alyx cheated? What? "Hobbes, what are you talking about? How could Alyx cheat? She got thrown into the deep end of the pool and managed to swim instead of sink, that's all."

Hobbes rolled his eyes. "Only after her brain had been stuffed with that spies-r-us store the Official bought from Heilburg. C'mon, _no one_ learns that fast. She had all the info in her head, she-"

"She had all those personas buried," Darien cut in. He knew better than most about all those lovely, dangerous other Alyxs and the skills that came with them. He'd been the one to help put her back together when those very same personas had been turned loose... and then fell apart, taking what little sanity she'd managed to retain after being dragged kicking and screaming into the loving bosom of the Agency with them.

"Yeah, yeah, but the info was still there. Maybe not directly accessible like her normal memories, but with how her mind works... That first big job she did, with Geofferies, she nailed it and no one with that little training should have been able to. I've been in the business a while, if the Boss would let her be rated, she'd have a Five-Star-A; the best of the best, and she didn't even have to work for it." Hobbes rubbed the top of his head. "I don't know how Heilburg got the info into her head, but it wasn't just raw data, it was _everything. _How to move, how to react, how to respond to a sudden change in a situation, especially one gone fubar. I've worked with seasoned pros who couldn't hold a candle to her after six months. _Six months._" He shook his head. "If she wasn't one of the nicest people I've ever met, I'd be damn scared of her."

Wow... just wow. Bobby's praise had been far from faint; he actually sounded passionate about it, and very sincere. This was the same guy who had disliked her so violently he'd refused to shake her hand. He'd come a long way over the last couple of years. "Hobbes... thank you."

Hobbes blinked. "Uh, for what?"

"For thinking I'm good enough to stay," Darien told him with all due sincerity. Not that the words were nearly enough, given he'd always felt second string to Alyx, especially in the beginning. What Hobbes said made sense. She'd had all the information on how to be a spy in her head, and she'd learned so damn fast those days it had shocked everyone... except the Official. Sneaky bastard. And that there was the wet blanket on this particular party. Staying meant dealing with the continued manipulations of the Fat Bastard, and Darien felt uncertain he would survive another one.

"You gonna?"

"Don't know yet, need more input."

Hobbes nodded, look neutral. "So does this damn program," he grumbled. "Stupid WiFi has too limited a range, we could drive around the city all day and not see the handles we want."

"We know the addresses of all the places he... they've used right?"

Hobbes grunted an affirmative.

"Can we dial in with Alyx's Destiny program and tie this one into it?"

Hobbes twitched, eyes narrowing slightly. "You are learning, young padawan."

Darien snorted.

"Maybe? Will need to ask the kid and pick up Destiny. Don't have it in the van." He pondered for a few minutes. "We'll keep going like this for now, I'll call the kid when we break for dinner. If not Destiny, she might have another idea that'll work."

At the mention of dinner, Darien's stomach growled and he wondered what snacks had been stashed in the van this time. Hobbes, clearly having heard the plaintive cry for food from his gastrointestinal system, produced a bag of assorted candy, a huge five pound one like those you can find around Halloween, opened it, grabbed a handful of sugary snacks for himself, then handed over the remainder to Darien. "How about back to my original question."

"Which was?" Hobbes asked around a mouthful of Twix.

"What happens when I get out? Ooh, Smarties." Darien grabbed a couple and proceeded to carefully unroll the clear plastic, before choosing which to eat first by color.

Hobbes sighed. "Kid has the right of it. Your life will be whitewashed. Much as possible, anyways. Your convictions will still be on record..." he grinned wryly. "Unless the kid decides to wipe those too. Essentially, you'll get a new identity, just with the same name. Bank accounts, credit cards, everything that says you've been a semi-upstanding citizen for the last few years."

Interesting. "And what about the Agency? They just pretend I don't exist?"

Hobbes looked away, not meeting Darien's eyes for long, silent minutes before continuing. "Yes... and no."

Darien sighed, wondering what the hell that really meant. "Bobby..."

"Fawkes, you have a multi-million dollar gland in your brain, do you really think that if we announce on the evening news that it's been removed and you're just a normal citizen now that anyone will believe us? And by anyone I mean, Stark, Arnaud, the MSS..."

Darien held up his hand to end the long list of enemies and parties that were interested far more in the gland than his charm and wit. "Okay, so the bad guys would still be out there... and they'll kill me trying to get at something that doesn't exist any longer." Except in that dream there had never been a threat against him, he'd never even felt a blip on the 'Danger, danger, Will Robinson' radar. "How do we... you... the Agency prevent that from happening?"

Hobbes ducked his head. "We watch you, till we don't need to no more."

"Spy on me, you mean."

"If you like. Does it matter if it keeps you alive and free?" That last word sounded bitter on Hobbes' tongue and Darien didn't like that one bit. He wanted to turn Hobbes' impending bad mood around somehow.

"Depends, you gonna be one of the mooks spying on me?"

"What? You think I ain't got better things to do than baby-sit a two-bit ex-thief and former spy? You think the Fat Man's just gonna send me back on some useless job to get me outta the way, Mister I'm-so-special-"

"Whoa, hold up there." Darien put up his hands in surrender, cutting off the rant before it had even really gotten rolling. He had no clue Hobbes was worried about being sent back to the bush leagues, or whatever it was called in the spy biz, once Darien had left. "I just meant I'd _like_ it if you were keeping an eye on me, is all. Sheesh. I'm walking out on the Agency not us."

Hobbes shook his head in what could only be disbelief. "You say that now."

Darien scooted forward and set a hand on Bobby arm. "I mean that. We're friends, Agency or not. That's not gonna change... is it?"

Hobbes sighed heavily and set his hand atop Darien's. "Yes and no."

"Oh, that's a useful answer," Darien snarked, wishing someone would just give him a straight one. "Just tell me, I want to know if my leaving is gonna break up the band or not." He scooted back and dug into the candy, tossing Hobbes a Snickers when he found one in the depths.

"I did answer, Fawkes," Hobbes groused as he caught the candy bar. "We can still hang out, but you being a civvie and all will change the how some."

"Okay, how?"

"Like you'll be hanging out with Robert Hobbes textile manufacturer, not Bobby Hobbes-"

"James Bond wannabe?" Darien shoved into the sentence earning a black look for his trouble. He'd meant it as a joke, not to piss Bobby off. "So no chit-chatting about the Agency, I get it."

Hobbes shook his head. "I don't think you do. Yeah, we can still hang out, go to movies, bowling, what have you, but that's it. You won't hear one word about the Agency. Nothing about Chrysalis, Arnaud, anything like that."

Darien frowned, not liking that at all. While he might no longer be in the biz, there was no reason he could see that he and Hobbes couldn't talk about stuff... aside from those classified issues, but Darien knew when to keep his mouth shut and would be perfectly capable of doing so. "Why not?"

Hobbes closed his eyes for a long moment, one hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. " 'Cause you'll be a civilian, that's why. If someone figured out I was coming to you talking about the job..." He trailed off, voice growing faint. "They could use you against me... against the Agency, and... and I won't put you at risk that way." He smiled wanly. "All part of protecting you, my friend." Using those last two words as if they could ease the sting.

So, he'd have Hobbes, for better or worse, so to speak, but not all of him, just the parts their lives going their separate ways would allow. Oh, this was just getting better and better. "What about Claire?"

"Same thing. No reason you two can't hook up, She'll probably want to keep an eye on you for a while anyway, to make sure everything's going okay after the deglanding, but it'll be a risk for both of you." Hobbes tipped his head slightly. "A risk that is more than worth it."

The last was said in a tone so serious that Darien's heart pounded painfully in his chest. "Damn straight," Darien agreed, holding his fist out for a knuckle bump, which he got along with a chuckle.

"You think you can get rid of me that easily?" Hobbes looked back at the screen. "Looks like this place is a bust. We'll grab some real food and head to the next location. See if we can get lucky there."

"Works," Darien agreed. Closing up the bag of candy and handing it over for stashing back into the compartment it had been retrieved from, but otherwise he didn't move, just watched as Hobbes shut down the program and closed the laptop. Most of his questions had been answered, but there was one more that needed to be. "What about Alyx? You didn't mention her. Or do you think you being her partner is gonna keep her too busy."

Hobbes took his time, storing the laptop in the secure drawer it was kept in while the van was in transit. "Yeah, I'll probably end up partnering her, for a while anyway. She don't need one on most jobs, in case you haven't noticed."

Oh, Darien had noticed all right, and didn't care for it much. He knew putting the two... three of them together all the time was stupid - much as Hobbes had predicted a while back - but he'd prefer her going out with someone to watch her back, and that just didn't happen very often any more. "Rather have you watching her back than anyone else," Darien told Hobbes truthfully, "but that don't tell me what I need to know." The dream had though, he just didn't want to admit it. Was certain what she would do, but wanted to hear it said by someone in the here and now, and not forced on him by some possible future. Closing his eyes for a moment brought it up in all its Technicolor glory, much to his dismay.

_It had been two months since I'd gotten out and in that time I'd had dinner with Claire three times, lunch with Bobby at least once a week and seen Alyx not at all. She refused to answer my calls, had changed the locks on her door to ones I couldn't pick, and whatever she was doing I was unable to find out where she was doing it. I couldn't even catch her showing up at the office or at her apartment._

"Fawkes, I don't know what she's planning on doing. I haven't discussed it with her. Why don't you ask her?" Hobbes got up and pushed by Darien to settle into the driver's seat.

Darien simply twisted around, arms wrapped about his canted out knees. "She won't tell me, so I'm asking you. If you were her, would you stay friends with me?"

"Friends? Is that all you are now?" Hobbes' attempt at distraction damn near worked, but Darien wanted to know, wanted to understand what he might lose should he go ahead with the gland removal.

"Bobby, please," Darien pleaded.

Bobby's shoulders slumped in capitulation. "Fawkes, she has... who the hell knows how many different people, agencies, generic bad guys gunning for her. People who want her dead, people who want to recruit her, people who want what she has inside her, her abilities and access to them." He turned about to look Darien in the eye, his look both hard and sympathetic at the same time. "She stays away from her family for a reason, Fawkes, and you... in some ways you are even more important to her. She stayed here for _you_. She spent all this money for _you_. Do think there's even the slightest chance that after all that she'd put your life at risk by staying by your side once you're free?" He turned away and started the van with a roar. " 'Cause if you do, you really are insane."

And _that_, much as he feared it would be, was his answer, like it or not.


	3. the path to the right

_"Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." Man, ain't that the truth. Thing is, some of us have managed to acquire a bit more misfortune than others. _

_the path to the right_

_._

The Keep was surprisingly quiet this late in the evening, the animals asleep in their cages, the bubbling of piranha tank almost melodic in the purple mood lighting, so Darien, though he had come here to find her, was actually surprised to see Claire still at her desk. He had kind of figured she would have headed home by now. Empty take out containers, the remains of what he hoped had been her dinner and not lunch sat on the table to her left. She seemed engrossed in whatever it was on the screen before her, a three-d model of something rotating on the left side, while data scrolled by on the right. She hadn't even glanced his way when the door slid shut behind him, which was odd, as the door wasn't exactly quiet at the best of times and had been downright noisy in the near silence of the empty office building.

He walked up behind her, making every effort to scuff his feet and create a modicum noise in order to warn her someone was in the room, but got no reaction for his efforts. The tapping of her hand gave him his first clue as to why, so leaning over he noticed the tiny ear-buds and the iPod they were attached to on the desk to her right. With a sigh of resignation, because no matter how he did this he was going to startle her, he shifted about to her right, just out of swinging range, and moved into her line of sight.

As he expected she jumped about half a mile, one hand going to her chest, the other ripping the headphones out of her ears as she barked, "Bloody hell."

Darien held the laughter inside, but allowed a smile to escape as he ducked his head. "Sorry, Keep, wasn't trying to sneak up on you, but you were clearly in the zone." He waved vaguely at the whole set-up.

"You could have called and warned me you were coming in." She groused, hitting stop on the iPod and turning off her monitor.

"Uh, I did. Went straight to voicemail." He shrugged, hands falling open in an attempt at contrition. She'd been grouchy and waspish ever since the day he'd said he wanted to wait on the gland removal thing, so he'd been avoiding her as much as possible, but with the need for Counteragent looming in his future he knew it was time to brave the Keep in her lair and see if she was still on his side.

"Bollocks," she muttered. "I must have forgotten to turn it back on after dinner." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, forced a smile upon her lips and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"You okay, Claire?" She didn't look fine, in his opinion; more like she'd been working way too many hours doing who the hell knew what at the beck and call of the Fat Man.

"Just fine, Darien," she assured him, her tone friendly for all of a second. "And would like to finish up the work you interrupted so I can go home." And _that_ was more like the Keeper of late, snippy and with severe distaste for dealing with him for any length of time.

He sighed, shoulders slumping, wondering what he had done wrong this time around. "Just wanted to make sure you had a batch of Counteragent going." He flashed her his wrist, showing the four green segments remaining. With no Quicksilver use he was good for days yet, but only had about ten minutes invisible before getting on that train to Nutsoville. "Not sure where the job is gonna head next and wanted to be prepared is all."

She visibly ground her teeth and pushed herself to her feet. "I have not forgotten my job, Darien." She stalked past him. "I will have the Counteragent ready by tomorrow and you are also due for an inhibitor shot this week."

He knew that, kept track of that in fact, simply because he liked his leash longer and would take every extra second the inhibitor would grant him. Any freedom was treasured when you often had none. "Cool." He nodded, stuffing his hands into the back pockets of his pants. "Why are you mad at me? Is it a shoot the messenger kind of deal or what?"

She spun about and shot a deadly glare at him. "I'm not mad at you," she snarled, realized what she'd just done, and then sighed heavily one hand coming up to her forehead. "But it would appear that I am taking my... anger out on you. My apologies."

"You're mad at Alyx," he stated, and watched as Claire's back straightened in pure defensiveness.

"And why would I have any reason to be angry at her," she growled, turning away, heading for the wall of cooler units, she opened then all but slammed closed three doors while Darien waited for her to finish venting.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe 'cause she figured out how to take out the gland before you did?" Darien kept his tone bland and still nearly flinched at the glare she leveled at him when she whipped about.

"Darien-"

"Does it really matter who came up with the solution? I'm willing to bet it's only because of what she learned here, from you, that she had any success," Darien pointed out, certain it was the truth. Yeah, Alyx might have had her own motivations to solve the gland removal issue, but it was the data here in the Keep that got her the basics she needed to even begin. "I'm even pretty sure she never intended me to know it was her, wanted me to believe you had done it, and all you had to do was keep your mouth shut." He tipped his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he watched his Keeper. "And I gotta wonder why you didn't."

Claire leaned back against the coolers and sighed heavily. "It was my job," she finally answered at little more than whisper. "And I wasn't even close to a solution." She shook her head, blonde hair hiding her face for a long moment. "It was my job."

"Yeah, it was. So? It's done, you can move on to bigger and better things. Like creating new glands that won't turn their owners brains into so much Alpo." He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, wanting to go to her, but unsure she'd permit it. Things had not been all that good between them for months prior to the whole Alyx getting killed thing, loyalties had been divided and torn to shreds over the last six months or so. Trust in his Keeper hadn't been high for a while, but he knew, had always known that when push came to shove, she'd be on his side. He remained certain of that even now. Even when she glared at him with murder in those blue eyes of hers.

"Why should I bother when Alyx and her precious lab can probably do it in half the time."

And _that_ was why she was angry; she felt useless. Now Darien just had to convince her she wasn't, not by any stretch of the imagination. He walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder. "Claire, Alyx had her reasons for doing this, but I doubt she intended to make you feel useless. How many projects are you working on right now?"

"Several," she admitted with obvious reluctance. "Which does mean my resources are divided between all of them."

"Exactly. While Alyx could throw all her resources at one thing..."

"Getting the gland out," Claire finished. "Still, she could have come to me, I would have been willing to assist."

Darien believed that, however their boss might have had other ideas. "And would the Official have been on board with that, or would he have done everything he could to block the research?"

Claire opened her mouth to answer three times before actual words came out. "I honestly don't know... but I suspect he would have tried to stymie me... us. Ordering other work, sending Alyx out of town, arranging complications or lack of information." She met Darien's eyes.

"He likes me on a short leash," Darien stated with a shrug of his shoulders. "Hell, he'd probably rather I was off the inhibitor, but Alyx would probably rebel."

"She's not the only one. The inhibitor greatly reduces the risk of you becoming immune to the Counteragent. That would be why I pushed for its development when she first broached the idea with me." Claire managed a small smile, but she remained tense, clearly not about to forgive and forget. Not yet, anyway.

"Well, that's good to know. Now you just need to increase my see-through time." That would be an amazing accomplishment in his opinion.

"Your see-through time is unlimited, it is your sanity that isn't," she reminded in that prim and proper schoolmarm voice she had mastered at some point in her life.

"Touché," he agreed with a nod of his head. "I'd prefer more invisible time without the nasty side-effect if possible. Any chance I can add that to the never-ending to do list?" He added what he hoped was a cheery grin, to ease the potential irritation that could be caused by his very serious request.

"Already on it, I'm afraid, and not going very well." She opened one of the fridges she'd already been in and pulled out a container of yogurt. "The only way to gain you more time invisible would be to reduce the production of the toxin, and that is not as simple as it sounds. The inhibitor is the best compromise solution so far, however, it reduces total production of all secretions by the gland." She pulled off the top, magically produced a spoon, and stirred the yogurt.

"Which gains me more time between shots but not more see-through," he finished, being well versed in how the inhibitor worked. "What about removing the genes that produce the toxin?"

Claire went frostily still, the spoon halting its forward motion halfway to her mouth, she let it fall back into the cup, and huffed in indignation. "And where would you get an idea like that... as if I didn't know."

And now she was angry again. Why couldn't he just keep his big mouth shut? "Does it matter?"

"No I suppose not, not at this point." She stabbed the spoon into the yogurt a few times before setting it down without having eaten a bite. "And I don't see much use in pursuing a line of research that is unnecessary. As you have so astutely pointed out, I have several other projects I could be working on."

"But why not pursue it?" he asked, disappointment coloring his words for her to easily see.

"Because you have your escape - the gland can be removed safely. Why would you need anything else?" Her hands had balled into fists, her temper clearly reaching its breaking point and Darien didn't want to add fuel to the already merrily burning fire.

"Yeah, right." He shuffled his feet for a moment, debating trying to continue this conversation, but she had made it reasonably clear that she had no intention of having a rational discussion with him. "Thanks, Claire. I'll check in tomorrow?"

"For what... oh, right. Yes, tomorrow afternoon, unless you need the Counteragent sooner." She picked up her yogurt and made her way back to the computer, ending the conversation.

Darien ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He walked over to the door, pausing as it slid open. "Night, Claire," he said, making the effort to be polite if nothing else.

"Goodnight, Darien." She didn't even turn to look at him, just turned on the monitor and got back to whatever task his arrival had interrupted.

The likelihood he would have a good night was slim to none. He left the Keep, heading for the tiny parking area behind the building where he'd left his car. He was guaranteed to have a visit by that dream again tonight and he didn't want any part of it. Didn't want to endure the loneliness and heartache it inspired. Didn't want to be reminded again that his choices had become so very limited.

He climbed into his car wondering how he could make things different. As he pulled out into traffic, it dawned on him that he already had. Not just because he had realized that certain aspects of the dream were incorrect, but simply because he had waited. Had not begun the series of shots that would ultimately lead to the removal of the gland the very next day after being told the good news. And yet the dream remained the same, had not changed one iota that he could recall. So what did that mean? That these tiny changes meant nothing in the greater scheme of things. That if he walked into the Keep tomorrow and told Claire to begin the removal process that that maybe future would still play out? That five years from now Alyx would be shot saving Bobby? That she'd do something like that was not in question, but why was that particular moment so fucking significant? Couldn't he simply warn her it was coming? He knew the general information on what had happened. Maybe if he told her... or Bobby that would alter the timeline enough to prevent the worst from happening.

But would that change anything for himself? And that answer would be no. He, assuming the reality that dream would be an accurate representation of his future life, would still be alone. Would not get that phone call bringing the Agency and Alyx back into his life. Oh, this was so messed up. Maybe... maybe he'd try talking to Bobby, warn him about the situation. Maybe that would be enough to change things.

He doubted it, but at this point he'd try anything to get a decent night's sleep. Sadly, he wasn't able to stay awake days at a time like Alyx. Though from what he'd gathered she had been going very short on sleep on this particular job.

He stopped at a red light, debating which way to turn, right would take him to her place, left his. Not that he was certain she was even at home tonight, she might very well be off playing with the jarheads on this little geek project of hers.

With a growl of frustration, he turned left when the light turned green. Deciding his empty apartment would be the better choice, even if it did mean no distractions from that unwanted, if needed, call of sleep. He was beginning to believe that the dream had little to do with him and everything to do with her, which meant even his Quicksilver dreams put her before him. Which sucked, to put it mildly. What? Was she supposed to save the universe or something and couldn't do it without him there on one day five years from now? He sure as hell didn't believe in fate or destiny, never had... not really anyway.

He pondered that as he drove, driving well below the posted speed limit as his focus was most certainly not on the road before him. Luckily, once away from downtown the traffic had cleared out. It might be a big city, but even it stayed pretty quiet weekday nights. People would be heading to work in the morning, which is why the partying was saved for the weekend. Shit, why couldn't he have just stayed a thief. Walked away from that old coot, with the prize, and moved on to the next score... or a real job as he'd told Casey on their anniversary.

What would have really changed? Kevin would still be dead, but Darien might very well have never known. Hell, the Official hadn't even bothered to tell Aunt Celia, even though he and Uncle Peter had worked together for years. Darien's life would be nothing like it was now. Nine to five grind, with his girlfriend... maybe fiancé, the doctor. How weird would that be?

But he'd made his choices, for good or ill, and they had led him to here and now. Working for the Agency, with little choice in the matter.

He pulled into an open spot outside his apartment building, made sure the parking permit was in full view, and climbed out of his car. He still had a decision to make. One that he wished could be easy as pie, but had turned out to be far from it.

And it didn't help that he now had confirmation from a reliable source, that should he go ahead and leave, Alyx would not speak to him again. That he would, as the dream kept insisting, remain alone for the foreseeable future. And... and it was all Alyx's fault.

Alyx who had somehow found her way past his defenses and into his heart. Alyx who had looked at him and seen Darien Fawkes, the man, and not a thief, not an ex-con, not the invisible man, but just him... and liked _him_. It boggled the mind on most days. Then she'd gone and done the impossible and figured out how to get the gland out of his head. To give him that choice she considered so important (in truth, so did he, but that was neither here nor there for his current ruminations). Only to learn, thanks to that very same gland and its cross-wiring with the pineal, that he would be without her if he did it. That before he'd even made his choice, that she'd already made hers.

And, right now, he hated her for that.

By the time he made it into his apartment, the borderline depression had morphed in sullen anger, not at the situation, but at the person who he currently blamed for it: Alyx.

She'd forced him into this seeming no-win situation and he wished he had any idea how to fix it.

He tossed his keys on the counter and pulled open the Zippy Cola fridge, choosing a pair of long necks. Tonight would require some lubrication in order to relax enough to fall asleep, and maybe, if he were luckier than usual, it would keep the dreams away.

.

Alyx's feet, in a pair of bright purple Chucks with just as bright yellow socks peeking out above the high tops, hung out the side door of the van, tapping together in time to the music blasting from the crappy must-have-been-sitting-there-since-the-eighties boom box on the tool bench in the Agency's so-called garage. Her legs were covered in denim overalls, rolled up to just below her knees, her torso only partially visible under the table/desk built into the rear of the van, the now dirty white tank top clearly visible given one of the buckles for the overalls had come undone. Mutters and grumblings came from deep inside the bowels of the assorted bits of gear racked into the interior side of the van. Alyx was currently installing the newest addition, a Mac tower of some stripe or another, that she'd souped up to handle the high end data mining program she'd come up with on the fly for the two of them.

Darien had managed to stay angry with her for three days, which had sucked, as it meant no comforting hand when woken up by that dream again. It had taken him that long to realize, that much like Claire, he had a bad case of shoot-the-messengeritis and let the anger go. Yeah, in some ways it was all her fault, but she'd done it because she cared about him. And that she cared enough to stay away from him in order to keep him safe. Thanks to the dream he knew exactly how hard it would be on him, he could only imagine how much more difficult it would be for her, especially with that mental connection they shared. She would still _feel_ him, if only as a presence in the back of her mind, and always know he was still out there... and know she could never be with him ever again.

Damn, how strong does someone have to be to do that?

He sure as hell didn't think he could do the same if faced with the same scenario. Every moment would hurt, to be near the one you loved, but unable to even allow yourself to be seen. To always watch, but to never touch. That... that would be horrible.

Yet she did it every single day.

The last thing he wanted to do was fight, even if said fight was very one-sided, when there remained the chance he might never see her again. He sighed softly, rolling his shoulders and settling further into the camp chair where he sat watching her do what he had only recently learned was her specialty, though until now he hadn't realized she could _build_ computers as well as program them. Though he supposed he should have realized that given she'd had a hand in revamping the computer system at the Agency not long after her arrival and Eberts' realization that she was not only a geek, but a tech-head.

Darien had, after discovering her real name not all that long ago thanks to her ex-husband showing up and raising cane, done some cautious research on her and her family. The Official had clearly done something to keep her out of the system as much as possible - she didn't even have a cover identity the way Hobbes did, she simply didn't exist and as many connections from Alyx to Michele as possible had been erased as a precaution. But her two older brothers had a very huge presence online, especially Patrick, who was the head of his own computer company that was looking to make the big two cringe in real fear. His computers were aimed at high-end users like the government rather than Joe Schmoe and his two-point-five, but there had been rumblings. It was little wonder Alyx could build a computer in the basement of the Agency; she'd helped her brother do that very thing when but a young girl in her teens.

Still, it had to be hard for her to have cut off all ties with her family. The sole exception being her twin brother Michael, and she rarely spoke to him directly, at least not since her mind had been unscrambled. Darien had lost most of his family, talking to them usually involved a trip to the cemetery, and the conversations tended to be more than a little one-sided these days. They had each other, and not much else, and he had found that he liked knowing there were people he could rely on. Bobby had been the first, then Claire, then Alyx. He wanted all of them in his life... somehow.

"Bobby, hand me the half inch wrench would you?"

Hobbes reached over into the tool box from his spot on the edge of the doorway, fished around for a moment before finding the right one, and placed it into her waiting hand. "You need some help there, kid?"

"Nope, the mount for the battery is being bitchy is all, I'll be done in a second."

Hobbes turned to face Darien. "According to the kid, the addition of the tower should greatly speed up our little hunt."

"Still not sure I understand why we need the laptop's big brother if all we're running is two programs," Darien stated, honestly not understanding what all the folderol was over.

A muffled thump was heard followed by swearing in a dainty feminine voice that made Hobbes chuckle softly.

"Processing power," came the answer from the under the table. "I'm ready for the battery, Bobby."

Hobbes handed over the foot long, foot high, two inch thin box that already had assorted cables attached to it. "Yeah, Fawkes, power. All the tower is for is to process the data Destiny and the tracer program are going to be accessing." He turned his head. "Right, kid?"

Alyx appeared then, hair pulled back into a ponytail that had then been wrapped up tight in a bandanna or something similar, containing her hair into one long tube with a teeny tiny poof of red at the end. The black streaks were still visible here and there, and would be hanging around until her job had been completed. She sat up, a smudge of dirt or grease visible along one side of her nose. "Exactly, right. The laptop is fine for simple searches for either of these programs, but for what you'll be doing won't be nearly enough." She looked at Darien and gave him a brilliant if tired smile. He suspected she hadn't seen a bed in two or three days, and was way overdue for a break. "Great idea, by the way."

"I try," Darien said, returning the smile.

"I wrote a program that will allow the other two programs to work together. I've already input all the numbers for the known locations, and added a bunch more that were also likely. WiFi is the big new thing, so there are hotspots popping up all over, I targeted public use ones, though there are plenty of private ones that could also be hacked and used. We can add more in as we need to." She sat there on the edge of the van, swinging her feet, looking all of ten years old, disgustingly sweet and innocent talking geek and Darien couldn't help but smile at her. The simplest of things she could do and they touched him in ways nothing else ever had before.

Why would he even risk losing this?

He wouldn't, of course. So now he just had to figure out how to have his cake and eat it to.

"But I thought all the WiFi... thingies were short range. Like in the building or very close by," Hobbes said, scratching the top of his head in what could only be Hobbesian confusion.

"Dead on, but you aren't going in via the WiFi, you're going to be dialing straight into the servers themselves. That's what Destiny is for. I've modified it so it can dial into multiple sources at once... and by multiple I mean hundreds." She waved at the tower mounted under the desk. "Thus the power needs."

"So, Destiny dials in and your little data mine program takes over looking for those handles we know about through all those systems at the same time," Darien stated wanting to make certain he had the gist of what would be happening when they fired the whole shebang up.

"Bingo. You go to the head of the class. It'll ping you if it finds any of the names. In fact, with a little direction on your part, it can probably check back the last twenty-four hours or so to see if your hacker has been there. It'll depend on how often they wipe the caches on the computers." She rubbed the side of her nose smearing the dirt across her cheek. "Once it finds the handle, you activate the second program and track it. With Destiny running, and if the computer has a video cam, you might just get yourself a picture of your bad guy."

Hobbes patted her on the back. "I knew we kept you around for a reason. But what about power power, the van can only handle so much, y'know."

"And that would be why I installed that big beast of a battery. That will handle the tower's power needs adequately. To recharge just plug her in while the van's in the garage. It should recharge overnight... or overday if you're working nights."

Hobbes rubbed his hands together. "Perfect."

"So we can park pretty much anywhere in the city and we just wait for the computer to find him? Run everything off the laptop?" Darien questioned, since she hadn't installed a monitor along with the computer.

"Yep, I'll have them talking to each other before you leave," she assured them, then proceeded to crack a huge yawn. "Sorry, guys, I'm in need of a nap after this."

"Aren't your toy soldiers expecting you?" Darien asked, doing his best to hide the concern he felt. Yeah, he worried about her. Exhaustion could defeat even her; it just took a bit longer for her to reach that point of collapse than the rest of the universe.

She shook her head. "Not today. Told them even us hackers need to sleep on occasion," she turned to face Bobby, "they offered me Red Bull."

Hobbes snorted. "You on Red Bull, that is a frightening thought."

"Tell me about it." She twisted about and reached for the laptop, flipping it open and turning it on. "Need about ten minutes to make certain everything is working like it should and then you boys can go play."

"You are going to go grab some sleep, yes?" Darien had the feeling he sounded plaintive, even though he tried to hide it.

"Uh huh," she agreed around another yawn. "Damn," she muttered, shaking her head as if to clear it. "Mind if I crash at your place?" her question sounded very tentative to his ears, which wasn't surprising given the extra icy shoulder he'd been giving her the last few days.

"Sure," Darien agreed, wishing he could join her, but he and Bobby would be making every effort to track down their cyber thief precluding any fun with the bouncy redhead, even if said fun was no more than cuddling, which she looked like she needed about now. Maybe he could steal five minutes alone with her before they went their separate ways for the day.

"Why Fawkes' place? Your bed has got to be more comfortable." Hobbes looked amused and actually curious, which was weird given he usually avoided the subject of their relationship as much as possible.

Her fingers flew over the keyboard. "Well, it's closer and I'm pooped and... and it smells like him." Her hand waved vaguely in Darien's direction for a moment before returning to the keyboard on her lap.

Since her focus remained on the computer before her, she failed to see the look of utter confusion skitter across Hobbes' face. He scratched one ear and looked over at Darien. "Is this some weird kink I've never heard of and don't really want to know about?"

Alyx twitched then fell back into the van laughing her proverbial ass off, the laptop bouncing dangerously on her abdomen.

Darien shook his head, highly amused at her reaction to the innocent question. "No, Bobby, for comfort."

It took Hobbes a second to get what Darien was saying, while Alyx continued to chortle and sputter in amusement. "Oh... Ah. I guess that glacier you were sporting finally thawed, huh?"

Darien hadn't even realized that Hobbes had noticed, especially given they'd barely seen Alyx the last several days. _She_ had most certainly noticed, her perky 'hellos' consistently shot down, leaving her looking bemused and unhappy, which he'd idiotically relished at the time. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Good," Hobbes stated, "kid's under enough pressure without you being all bitchy at her. 'Specially when the sitch definitely ain't her fault."

Alyx had finally managed to get herself under control and carefully sat back up, one hand securely holding the laptop the other wiping tears from her eyes. "My hero," she said, giving Bobby a nudge with an elbow. "Claire's the one who's really angry at me." She shrugged.

"Well, you did kinda go behind her back with the whole removal thing," Bobby pointed out, with what sounded like the utmost caution, as if afraid she would lash out at him.

"Yes, I did, and I'd do it again in the same situation." She sighed, shoulders slumping for a long moment. "It wasn't her back I was going behind, not really, but I doubt she'd listen to me right now."

"It was the 'Fish's back, wasn't it?' Hobbes asked astutely, taking no time at all to figure it out.

Darien answered for her. "Yeah, figured that out myself a couple days ago."

"Hey, I said you had no idea what I was capable of." She met his eyes for a moment over the top of the screen. "Now you do."

"Kid, you're a frickin' steamroller," Hobbes told her bluntly. "You don't let nothing stop you once you've decided to do something."

"And that's a bad thing?" she inquired, one eyebrow arching on her brow.

"Sometimes, yeah, it is. But not on this occasion." He gave her a nod. "You did the right thing."

She gave Bobby a real smile. "Thank you."

"Anytime... when you deserve it anyhow. Now, can we get this show on the road or what?"

"Nag, nag, nag. Working a double job, going short on sleep, and writing miles and miles of code just for you and what do I get? 'Hurry up.' Yeesh." She tossed in an eyeroll for comedic value and Hobbes batted a hand at her, which she easily dodged as the swing was in slo-mo. "All up and running with the initial numbers dialed in. Make sure to not unplug the cord to the tower and you can sit up front with this."

"Don't we got that air... thingie set up?" Darien asked, suddenly unable to recall what the damn system was called.

"Airport, and no." She handed the laptop over to Bobby who started playing with the knobs and switches. Destiny he knew how to run, and he'd become pretty well versed in that other program over the last couple of days, even with the lack of success.

"Why not?"

" 'Cause your guy is good and the system _is_ hackable. I really don't want my pretty programs scrambled... or stolen," she explained stretching her arms up over her head and revealing that she'd also been skipping meals along with the sleep based on the ribs he could see through the thin cotton of the shirt. "He shouldn't be able to track Destiny back to the source, but I'm taking no chances. No WiFi, no Bluetooth and no Airport, stick to landlines until we know more."

He managed a half bow while still sitting. "You da boss, in this at least." Then he heaved himself out of his chair and moved to stand in front of her with his hand out. "I'll walk you to your car," he turned to Bobby, "if that's okay, other boss."

Hobbes snorted. "Go on. She'll sleep better once you officially make up. Be back in fifteen, we have work to do."

Alyx groaned as she grasped his hand and allowed him to haul her into a vaguely upright position. "And I don't?" she snarked. "Call me if you have any problems. I'm good, but even I can program in a glitch or two."

"Will do, now off with you." Hobbes waved them off, totally engrossed in the new-ish toy.

Darien wasn't about to wait to be told twice, he'd take the few minutes she had to spare and make the most of them. Alyx's Jag had been stuffed into a corner of the tiny parking lot, a spot normally no one would be able to fit into, but with her mad driving skills and the ability to lift the car into, or out of the spot if necessary, it sat there looking like a prize Arabian amongst worn out draft mules. The pool of Agency POS-mobiles - not including Darien's assigned car, which had remained at his apartment today since Hobbes had picked him up this morning - now down to three ancient Ford LTDs in various shades of rust and decay. Plainly there was nothing else going on in the great city of San Diego that required the other agents to be out and about.

He sat down on the trunk of her car and drew her close, trapping her between his knees. A coil of bright red hair had escaped the confines of the pony tail and he twirled it about a finger all the while just watching her eyes. With the thumb of his other hand he wiped at the smudge on her nose until it was nothing but a faint smear. She waited with seemingly infinite patience for him to gaze upon her as much as he wished. His hands eventually settled upon her hips, making note that he could practically wrap his hands about her waist, fingertips almost meeting both front and back. Damn, she was so damn tiny, yet so very strong; it still surprised the hell out of him on most days. With a soft sigh, he leaned forward to brush the most delicate of kisses upon her lips.

When he pulled away, her eyes wide and staring right into his, which caused his heart to markedly increase its beat, he said, "I'm sorry."

"Ah, D, you don't have to be," she told him, one hand coming up to cup his cheek. He turned his head slightly to kiss her palm, making her shiver in the warm afternoon air.

"Yeah, I do. I could've spent my time with you the last few days and instead I was off sulking and being bitter over good news. I am an idiot and have no idea why you put up with me." Very true that, he really had no idea why she chose to be with him, especially when she could have pretty much anyone she wanted. Granted there would always be security issues given her gifts, but that could be worked around... like with the Kirkland Geofferies thing. Not that Darien wanted her to go looking elsewhere; he just didn't understand why she had chosen him, other than not really having much choice in the matter. He didn't want to be the one she settled for. That would almost be worse than her staying away for all the right reasons. If he stayed, here with the gland, he wanted her to be a willing participant in this relationship, and there were times she gave off a backed into a corner vibe when it came to _them_.

She gave him a smile that made him want to melt at the sheer sincerity contained within it. "There are lots of reasons why I put up with you."

"Like?"

"Like getting items off high shelves," she managed straight-faced and without blinking.

"Alyx..." he warned, leaning in to place a delicate kiss on the extremely sensitive spot under her right ear.

"Well, the sex isn't half bad. That's always a plus."

He rested his forehead against her shoulder, chuckling softly. "You just can't be serious, can you?"

She shrugged, bouncing his head. "You seemed to need the laughter more, bub."

He raised his head to meet her oh so serious gaze realizing she was right. He'd been struggling with the serious for days now, and keeping her out of it, which meant, except for Bobby he'd had no place to ease the tension and stress - self-inflicted admittedly, but there all the same. He needed to make a decision, a real one, but not this instant. In this instant he'd allow himself to be swayed to her side of the line, maybe remind himself of what he'd be losing should he actually go through with this in the here and now. And that might be the one saving grace of the entire situation; he could still do the deed later, could actually wait a month, a year, hell a decade if he chose and when the time was right, go through with it. Walk away from the Agency, and maybe get the chance to keep her too.

"Yeah, guess I did," he agreed, ducking his head. "You working tonight?" He hoped he didn't sound too desperate, as he wanted her company just as much as her body at this point. To just hold her for a few hours would do an amazing amount to heal the ache he could feel on her heart.

" 'Fraid so, and it's gonna be a long one."

"How long?"

"Big final push on the coding, probably two days straight," she told him, sidling in closer. "So make these last few minutes count."

"Christ," he muttered, the electric tingle along his skin, telling him more than words ever could. He suddenly found himself kissing her without conscious memory of moving. They broke away, breathing heavily a few minutes later. "Stop by when you can, a minute an hour, whatever you can spare, please?"

She nodded. "I will." She sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, taking a half step back, which was enough to reduce the needs he could feel coming from her in sharp-peaked waves. "You be careful. Geeks can carry guns too."

Darien snorted and not in amusement. "I am well aware of that fact." Eberts being a prime example of that. Geek extraordinaire and double agent to boot. How things had gotten so badly twisted about so quickly still boggled the mind. Darien might never understand what had really happened or why, but it had and it finally had woken him to the fact this job was damn dangerous, which necessitated him becoming dangerous as well. Not something he'd ever considered himself, but had come about because of the demands placed on him because of the job. And that... that was one of the reasons he still considered taking that pardon he'd been granted, having the gland removed, and moving on with his life. Did he really want to become hardened to the harsher realities of life, did he want to become someone who made those life and death decisions and could kill one to save others?

Alyx and Bobby had taken it upon themselves to get him the training the Official had balked on, so Darien now knew how to handle a variety of weapons and had become reasonably well versed in a mish-mash of self-defense techniques. He'd never be able to go all crouching tiger on someone, but could generally get out of a tight situation hand-to-hand. Plus, he could now shoot straight with a selection of weapons and though the Official preferred to not allow him a weapon on the job, Hobbes would get him one when it was called for, trusting him to do the right thing. An amazing change since those early days where he seemed to barely know which end of a gun the bullet came out of. He'd never be a marksman, but had been assured he was more than adequate, and that's all he really needed. If he was forced to pull a gun on someone for anything other than generic intimidation purposes, something had gone seriously fubar along the way.

"Dare, you're thinking too hard again," Alyx admonished in a soft tone.

"And it's gonna distract you," he groused.

She smacked him a good one on the shoulder. "No, it won't, or not much anyway." She draped her arms over his shoulders and ran her nose along his. "You are stressing over this too much, that's all." She gave him a kiss. "I didn't do this to twist you up in knots. Yes, it's a choice you didn't have a couple weeks ago, but it will still be there tomorrow... unless the Official has been applying pressure-"

Darien shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Hasn't even mentioned it, in fact. Which, come to think of it, is kinda weird." More than just weird, downright strange. You figure he'd be pushing for an answer, a decision so he could figure out the budget or any of a half dozen other reasons, yet he'd not said even one word. "You certain he knows?"

"Very," she assured him. "He has his reasons, he always does." She rested her forehead against his a wave of comfort washing over him.

"You need to sleep." He could feel that as well, she was exhausted and nearing the end of her seemingly boundless energy.

"Yep, I do," she agreed, sounding as tired as she felt. "I'll try to bump into you tomorrow." She backed away so he could stand.

"Good plan," He kissed her brow, "and good luck."

He waited for her to climb into the car and start it with a roar, before giving her a wave and heading back to the garage and his partner, who had either been eavesdropping or doing his version of a geekasm at the computer the entire time. It turned out to be neither, as he'd packed everything up and had the laptop sitting on the jump-seat awaiting Darien's return.

"She okay?" Bobby asked once Darien had slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. He started the van with a roar in the close confines of the garage.

"Just tired," Darien assured him. "Long hours and lots of work, from what I gather. Same ol', same ol'."

"You get things settled?" Bobby backed the van out of the garage did a nine point turn to get it aimed in the right direction and headed out of the tiny one lane alley to G Street.

"Much as we could in ten minutes." Darien pondered how much to tell his partner. "She's still freaked over the whole Eberts thing, and I can't blame her."

Hobbes nodded. "Whole building is, truth to tell, but it'll get back to normal, our version of it anyway, soon. Now, where do you think we should park for the first sweep?"

Well, that made it quite clear that Bobby was about as ready to discuss the Eberts thing as much as Alyx had been. Not that Darien was now prepared to deal with it, just too much shit in a life filled with it. It would most definitely wait for another day, one with alcohol to ease the sting of betrayal. "Uh, there's a half dozen spots right in downtown, maybe over by the convention center? Drive time won't be great, but won't be horrible either. Shoot we could sit right here, but then the boss might think we weren't actually working."

Hobbes snorted. "Ain't that the truth. Convention center it is, then." Bobby pulled out into traffic with a squeal of tires.

They drove in silence for several minutes as Bobby weaved the van in and out of traffic, but Darien could tell his friend was thinking and hard at that. So he allowed the silence to linger, giving Hobbes the chance to sort out his thoughts.

When he finally had them gathered into something vaguely coherent he said, "Fawkes, don't let nothing push you into a decision. You need to do what's right for you... even if it means leaving."

Darien sat there in pure shock for a long moment, his thoughts suddenly a whirlwind in his mind. "Hobbes, I... I thought you wanted me to stay?" He felt like he'd been thrown off a bridge, freefall causing his stomach to be left behind as he plummeted towards the unyielding rush of water far below.

"Fawkesy, I do, but I've been thinking the kid might be right. Don't let what I want influence your decision."

The constriction in his chest tightened at that. He'd thought that at least one of his friends would actually _want_ him to stay, even if it were for selfish work-related reasons. "Alyx got to you, didn't she?" he all but growled, wondering why all his supposed friends were trying to shove him away.

"What? No." Hobbes hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "That back there was the longest I've spoken to her all week... in person anyway." He slowed to a stop at a red light and turned to Darien. "I've just been thinking is all, and you've been worrying over the whole thing like a dog with a bad case of fleas." He shook his head. "I didn't want to be making this decision more difficult." He pulled forward with the traffic, his eyes darting between the road ahead and Darien.

"Hobbes, what if... what if my going screws up something big in the future?" Darien suddenly blurted out, making the sudden and unexpected decision to take the chance, to try and change that future with words.

"Like what?"

"Like maybe one of you getting really hurt 'cause I wasn't there to back you up," Darien said after a moment of hesitation. He had this weird churning in his gut that this would turnout to be a really bad idea, even though he had nothing to back up that feeling. This plan would work just as well as any other, he supposed. Though for some reason even the thought of mentioning the possible future to Alyx made him balk and badly. He knew that would somehow go wrong in the worst way possible. Hell, she'd probably tell him not to let a silly dream, Quicksilver-related or not, stop him from doing what he felt was best.

Hobbes snorted, though it sounded forced. "You think Bobby Hobbes can't handle himself with you by his side? I've been in this game a lot longer than you have there, buckwheat, I'll be here long after you've gone."

Darien sighed. "Not what I meant, Bobby, and you know it."

Hobbes rolled his shoulders, allowing the burst of irritation to slide away, then nodded. "You know something I don't? Maybe some inside info that you can't really share with the class?"

Damn, he kept forgetting just how smart Hobbes was. "And if I said yes?"

Hobbes rubbed the top of his head with one hand, eyes staring straight out the windshield as if unwilling to meet Darien's. "I'd tell you to not let it control your decision. You need to make the one that works best for you. The future ain't happened yet."

"But I could tell you and maybe you could stop it," Darien explained quickly, almost unable to get the words out, as if breaking some hitherto unknown cardinal rule about Quicksilver dreams and the future they foretold. Which was just plain weird, as he'd discussed his previous dreams with anyone willing to listen, as had Alyx, with no obvious issues. What was so special, so important about this particular dream that made him want to keep it solely to himself? If, as he suspected, the dream was more about Alyx than himself, why shouldn't he be able to talk about it, to use the info to potentially avert a tragedy.

"And you're assuming that even if you told me every detail that the reality would match exactly. You know that don't often happen with those dreams," Hobbes countered with, and correctly at that.

Darien knew the details differed; he'd already compiled a list and yet still the same dream kept coming every single time he fell asleep.

"You think that if you tell me now, it'll change things, let you leave without having to feel guilty about it. Fawkes," Hobbes paused shaking his head, "things are gonna change if you leave, we both know it, and trying to alter a future that might never happen is a waste of time. I'll hear you out, but that don't mean I'll recognize the situation when it happens until it's already too late."

Darien rubbed his eyes with both hands, hating that Hobbes was right, that no matter what he did, how he tried, the information was as good as useless. He knew both too much and not enough. Apparently, the only thing in the here and now that would make a difference was his decision.

And he just _adored_ having all that responsibility dropped right on his unwilling shoulders.

He heaved a great sigh and dropped the idea like the hot potato it had apparently become. "Let's just catch this guy. I'll figure out what to do about the future once the present isn't looking so bleak."

Hobbes gave him a glance and a grin. "Works. But I mean it, if you want to talk about anything I'm here for you." The sincerity eased that tightness in his chest if only slightly, but it was better than nothing at this point. " 'Kay?"

"Okay," Darien agreed. Now it was time to do the job and catch the bad guy.

.

Three more days of screwy schedules, no success, and decided lack of restful sleep, as that stupid dream had become even more insistent and he couldn't even close his eyes for a doze without having some random scene pop into his brain, and he was ready to tear out all his hair and run screaming down the halls of the Agency like a madman. Instead, he turned into a grouchy bear woken mid-hibernation with no chance of getting back to sleep. He had tried not to take it out on Hobbes, but given they were stuck together a fair sixteen hours a day it had become inevitable that Darien would. And he'd managed to keep poking the angry hornets nest Hobbes could be until he threw Darien out of the van, forcing him to walk back to the Agency so he could claim his car and drive home.

That had sobered him, though probably not as much as it should have, the lack of real sleep had been a far greater influence on his mood than his friend's reaction, but he still took it and Hobbes' words to heart. So on the way home he'd stopped at a pharmacy and picked up an over-the-counter-over-advertised sleep aid. Once home, he took two, flopped onto his bed, and prayed they would work. He'd awoken mid-morning the next day actually feeling rested for a change. He'd still had the dream, but the lovely drug had allowed some distance to be created between it and his emotions. Of course, there had been the lovely side-effect of a sleeping pill hangover and he felt like he was walking about wrapped in cotton wool for a fair couple hours after he'd gotten up and moving. Clearly, a trade-off, but at least he wasn't grumbling and snapping at everything and everyone within earshot.

At work, he'd tracked down Hobbes and mumbled a "Sorry," right off the bat, which earned him a grunt of acceptance. Darien would be in the dog house until he'd proven he was over his bad case of the bitchies, which was more than fair after what he'd put his partner through the last few days. Then they spent an hour trying to make sense of the data they had collected. They'd gotten hits on several of the handles, sometimes several at once, traced them to a specific location, would mad dash it there only to discover... nothing. The program would insist that the hacker should be right there in front of them, but aside from regulars who actually spent their days, or nights, working at the cyber cafes, they'd found no one, not even a computer in the building using the handle in question. It had become obvious that something else was going on, but they hadn't a clue how to figure out what. Now would be when they'd head off to beard Eberts in his lair, but since that was no longer and option and the few other geeks in the building were almost as low end as Hobbes, there'd be no help there.

That left exactly one option and they had no idea if she were even around to assist. Stack of papers in hand, Darien headed for Alyx's office on the very faint hope she'd be there. If she wasn't he'd give her a call and see if she could spare them an hour to get this mess sorted out. Much to his shock, she was sitting behind her desk with a book in her hand, a novel as opposed to something work related, quite obviously killing time.

He tapped on the doorframe and waited for her to look up from the book before asking, "You got a minute?"

"For you, of course," she stated, dog-earing the page and placing the book on the desk. "What's up?"

"We can't read geek, apparently," he explained, waving the papers in his hand as he walked towards her. He hooked one of the chairs with his foot, dragged it over, and plopped down into it with a sigh.

"It can't be that bad, I made certain the data would be understandable by even the 'Fish." She leaned forward, hand out for the papers. One black-dyed curl of hair fell into her face, she huffed and attempted to blow it out of the way with little success. Today's outfit was Goth Catholic schoolgirl from the looks of it. That uniform from the private school job she'd done a few months back recycled and modified for the current one. He thought she'd looked like a kid then, it was a whole new game with the addition of spikes, skulls, and dark make-up. She must either be just getting her day started and waiting for her bodyguards to arrive, or just finishing up and trying to wind down before heading home and attempting to sleep for a few hours.

She perused the papers, tapping one dark purple painted nail on the desktop. "This is... weird," she finally stated. "Are these timelines correct?"

"Far as I know, why?"

Her brows were knit together and he could practically hear her mind whirring from where he sat. She could see something in all that data, something he and Bobby had been unable to, which, of course, was why he had come to her in the first place. " 'Cause it looks like we might actually be working the same case." She got to her feet, papers still in hand, and came around the desk to stand before him. He just barely kept his jaw from dropping to the floor as he realized that she'd not only shortened the uniform skirt dramatically, but paired it with garters, tights that came only to mid-thigh, and combat boots.

"Oh crap," he muttered, swallowing with difficulty.

"What?" she asked looking about with obvious confusion.

"Keep the outfit," he informed her, voice tight as he made every effort to rein in his reaction.

She glanced down at the clothes, then back up to meet his eyes, a look of pure innocence on her face. "This? Why?"

God damn it. Right at that moment he kind of hated the fact that she could play him so very well, yet the same time he loved it. Loved the fact that she knew him well enough to make him squirm without saying more than a word or two. He tapped her on the nose. "Cruel woman." She gave him a sly knowing smile that made his heart jump in his chest. "Next day we have off I expect to see you in this, understand me?"

"Sir, yes, sir," she replied with a heel click and snappy salute. She lifted the skirt slightly. "Too distracting?"

He also loved that she could make a simple statement and he understood the entire paragraph that went with it. He shook his head. "I'll manage," he assured her, wishing it wasn't true, he'd be more than willing to play hooky for an hour or so to deal with the distraction, but he had the feeling that they were running on borrowed time with both their cases. "Hobbes is still in our office."

"Cool. We'll pick him up on the way down to the van." She led the way out the door and into the hallway.

"Why the van?" He intentionally dragged along behind to get a good look at _her_ behind, which was barely covered by the short skirt and showed a fair amount of tanned thigh between the tops of the tights and the bottom of the ugly plaid material. Oh, the plans his mind was already hatching for how to wile away the time when he had her alone in that outfit.

"That's where the laptop is, yes?"

Darien had drag his eyes upward to meet hers as she glanced back at him over her shoulder. "Uh... yes?"

She chuckled softly, shaking her head. "If I'd known this was how you'd react I'd've worn the school girl outfit long before now." She spun about to walk backwards down the hall. "Later, bub, I promise," she told him softly and he managed a tight nod in response.

When she turned back around, he released the air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Hell. Maybe he should have her go change, they'd barely seen each other the last couple of weeks, there most certainly hadn't been time for getting up close and personal and he was beginning to feel it more than a little. He needed to focus on the job right now, or it'd be even longer before he could get her alone. Though based on her reaction, twenty minutes in a closet might just be more than enough to ease the building tension between them.

Sadly, they had work to deal with first.

Alyx poked her head into the office shared by Darien and Bobby. Once upon a time they'd been stuck in a pool office, but the two of them had irritated the crap out of the other agents with their snark and banter and so they had arrived one morning to find all their stuff moved to smaller office down the hall that they had all to their very own. Neither he nor Bobby had minded all that much given their working style had little to do with traditional spy craft these days. Yeah, the leg work was the same, but the execution varied quite dramatically what with the Quicksilver to abuse. When they needed help, they got it, generally with very few complaints, but didn't mind working alone, especially since it got the job done far more often than not.

"Hear tell you could use some assistance."

Darien looked over the top of her head to see Bobby sigh dramatically. "So he ratted us out, did he?"

Alyx glanced up at Darien, reminding him of that one scene in almost every episode of Scooby Doo. "Guilty as charged. Unless you've managed to figure it out what it means while I've been gone?" It was possible Bobby had, he was damn good at his job after all.

Hobbes snorted with a shake of his head. "I wish. You have a clue, kid?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. Need to read the detailed data from the laptop is all."

Hobbes got to his feet. "Well then, what're you waiting for?"

She gave him a grin and moved out of the doorway. "You."

They chatted amicably on the way down to the garage, but no mention of the two cases possibly being the same one came up. Darien figured she wanted to verify the connection before springing the news on Bobby. The van sat in the garage, a cord trailing out the driver's window to the nearest outlet, charging the battery for the tower. It had worked just as predicted, giving them a solid twelve hours of use each and every day. He suspected it would last longer, but there were only so many hours in the day and they did need to sleep and eat and do the miles of paperwork this job entailed. Plus... _plus_ their daily reports to the 'Fish and their ongoing lack of success. So, while they might spend twelve hours in the van there was another four or so spent doing other things. They'd been living this job for a solid two weeks now with the same lack of results as the month prior.

They weren't usually quite this deficient at their job, typically by now they'd have someone in custody or at the very least an explanation for what had been going on and why they had no one to arrest. This job had been weird from the get go and had just gotten stranger along the winding and twisted path it had taken.

Alyx slid open the side door, plopped down into the sole chair, opened the laptop, and turned it on. "All right, tell me what's been going on."

Hobbes scratched the top of his head and shuffled his feet. "Your program don't work," he told her, ducking his head as if he felt guilty about it.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, rotating the chair so she could face him directly.

" 'Cause we get a hit on a handle, we mad dash it over to the location only to find nothing. Hell, a couple times the places had already closed down for the night," Bobby waved a hand at the pair of computers, "yet it's telling us they guy is sitting right inside, hacking the night away."

"Hmm..."

"That's all you got to say? 'Hmm'?" Bobby groused, leaning against the door frame and aiming a glare at her.

"For the moment, yes," she informed him, turning back around now that the laptop had finished its start up. She quickly pulled up the archived data, pausing here and there at items she clearly saw as significant, but that meant nothing to them. She split the screen, did... something so that a new set of data began scrolling by, then another split, and another until they could see nothing but Matrix style data sets flowing from bottom to top on the screen. Darien would never have been able to read one of the data sets, but knew with certainty she was reading all of them at once, and looking for something. Something to do with both their cases, at a guess.

"You checking to see if our times match yours?" Darien asked, as the pieces fell into place. If their hacker were the same as hers, then the outgoing signals they had would match her incoming ones.

"Yep," she confirmed. "The Official has proved he is a sneaky son of a bitch yet again." She glanced over at them. "You been working this case since D got back from Cold Springs, right?"

"Yeah," Hobbes agreed. "Which means the Boss suspected... or knew something hinky was going on ages ago." He crossed his arms over his chest. "But why have us take this one on? This is so not our specialty."

" 'Cause we were all he had," Darien answered. "Eberts was gone and Alyx was on the injured reserve list." He grinned. "Plus, holding Alyx back meant a better chance that when someone came to ask for help, they'd be willing to pay through the nose for it."

Hobbes sighed and rolled his eyes. "And because we were already working the case, if from a different angle, if we crack it he takes all the credit... once again."

Alyx chuckled. "That's our boss, working the case from all sides."

"But why are you thinking they're the same case?" Hobbes asked. "I mean from what I've seen you're not on a hacker hunt, you're doing security upgrades, right?"

"Yes," Alyx agreed, "but only because someone has been hacking their databases and their firewalls and encryptions haven't even made the infiltration program blink." She rotated completely about and sat back into the chair, one leg crossed over the other, a long expanse of thigh easily visible as the skirt shifted. Darien forced his eyes upwards to see her wearing a tiny smirk of amusement. "Most programs used to hack their way into databases bludgeon their way in, smashing down walls and defenses, leaving big gaping virtual holes that can be traced back." She paused her look becoming one that appeared to be impressed. "This one, though... it's the virtual equivalent of a high intensity laser. One shot and it's in, and seconds later out with the data it wanted." She rubbed her nose with a hand. "If I didn't know better I'd swear that I wrote the code myself."

Darien whistled. "That good?"

She nodded. "Oh yes. I'm looking forward to reading the program code once we find the progenitor."

There was something in her voice, something almost prideful and possessive. "It's yours, isn't it?" Darien's asked, making it clear it wasn't really a question.

Hobbes twitched. "Kid..."

She shrugged. "I can't answer that," she finally said. "Did I write a program that could do something like this one? Yes, years ago, but while workable the power demands were enormous. There's a reason sledge hammers are more popular with the hacking set. It destroys all the data around it, mangling it and making repair almost impossible. This... this is a surgical strike. It removes the data completely, which means..." She let the sentence hang for them to fill in.

"Shit," Hobbes muttered. "Which means if your data ain't backed up somewhere it's gone for good." He pushed himself upright and began pacing. "That's what you've been doing. Recovering the data and shoring up their defenses so's the hacker can't get back in."

"Yep, and the recovery process ain't easy, let me tell you." She rubbed her forehead as if a headache had begun to build. Given they had no idea how long she'd been awake, that could very well be true.

"But what are they stealing?" Darien asked, deciding if someone had to fall on that particular sword, it might as well be him.

"Documents, mostly. One here, one there, nothing that makes any logical sense to me as the thefts are from all facets of the military, and while I know the work overlaps, even I am aware they don't like to share their toys with the other kids." A definite reference to the Kirkland Geofferies/Novadyne job they'd done. Then it had been the Marines keeping quiet the fact they'd discovered a nifty new potential fuel source that could keep their birds in the air for a much lower cost than anyone else in the military. "I get the impression that the muckety-mucks I've been dealing with have no clue why these docs have been targeted. Bobby, I'll compile you a list and see if you can make sense of it. They seem to be mostly part or equipment designs, but from a variety of different systems." She shrugged. "There's not enough puzzle pieces on the board for me to make sense of it."

"No can do, kid. I pretty damn sure we are not on that particular need to know list. Hell, I doubt you are." Hobbes had gone straight into proper protocol mode and on this occasion Darien actually didn't disagree with it. Had serious doubts about Alyx making the sole decision to read them in on her job, especially since it was an outsourced one. If Darien wanted no part of going back to prison, he had even less interest in being court-martialed, or tried for treason.

She gave him a grin. "I have control to use whatever resources I need to get the job done." She waved a hand at them. "Tag, you're it."

Hobbes huffed. "You don't get to do that just cause you want to play with us. You gotta have a real reason or the 'Fish will be the one getting the ass chewing."

Her grin just got wider.

"Bobby, I suspect she does have a legitimate reason."

Hobbes sighed. "Yeah, me too. All right, kid, what've you got?"

She waggled her eyebrows. "You're gonna love this. Last night while you were trying to catch a hacker at a closed cyber-shop, an attack occurred on one of the systems I had already upgraded the security on," she informed them, her smile widening as the light bulbs over both men's heads went off.

"Which means our hacker..." Darien began.

"...is your thief," Hobbes finished. He pondered a moment, one finger tapping his chin. "Yeah, that'll do."

"Thought it might, but we'll inform the Bossman of the sitch so he won't get sideswiped by the irritated phone calls he'll receive when I read you in fully." She waved at the laptop. "I think I know how he's pulling this off, but need to plow through your data to be sure. If you'll tell the Official, I'll get started." She gave them a winsome smile and Bobby caved almost instantly.

"Sure thing, kid. Fair bet he already knew this would be coming, anyway," Hobbes grumbled, not liking to be manipulated by the Official any more than the rest of them.

"A'course he did," Darien stated, tossing Alyx a grin before turning about and heading for the door that would lead into the Agency proper with Hobbes beside him. Within moments she'd be buried in raw data comparing the info they'd collected the last few days with everything she had stored in her head. By the time they got back, she'd hopefully have everything they needed to track this guy... or gang; had to remember that, this could be more than one person pulling off these thefts; a ring of geekery stealing kibbles and bits from the U.S. government. Why was the big question of the moment. For themselves or for someone else.

"Hobbes, what if these guys are just middlemen?"

"I had the same thought, kimosabe." Bobby opened the door to the stairwell and hustled up them, forcing Darien to take them two at a time to keep up. "Ain't much we can do beyond catch the guy. If he's just the little fish we hope he can point us at the big one." At the second floor door, he turned to face Darien who had just made the landing. "Just like always. Or did you forget how this investigation thing works?"

Darien managed a laugh. "No, I haven't forgotten how this works. Just thought it'd be simple, I guess. Now, we are not only looking for some hacker extraordinaire, who might very well have corrupted a program Alyx wrote way back when, but could be stealing some weapon or other item of mass destruction to hand off to some as yet unnamed uber bad guy to use against us."

Hobbes actually laughed. "You figured out all that in the last fifteen minutes?"

Darien could only imagine that he looked as confused as he felt. "Uh, yeah. Didn't you?"

"Course I did." Hobbes shook his head. "And you think you have no skills in this biz. Just imagine what you could do if you actually _tried_."

Darien had two reactions to that snark-filled comment. First was to damn near bask in the praise, especially since most days he still felt like a hack. Second was to feel insulted that Hobbes just assumed he _didn't_ try. Granted the effort he generally put into the jobs handed down to them was minimal, but for Hobbes to call him on it just wasn't nice. But it left Darien wondering, perhaps for the very first time, what the job might be like if actually he _did_ try. If he did put forth more than the half-hearted effort he usually aspired to. If, instead of fighting tooth and nail against the chains he saw himself as being held in, he just went along with it. It wasn't as if he _hated_ the work, in fact, he found it fun most of the time, the less boring and deadly to life and limb bits anyway, and he found an odd irony in using his less than legal skills to catch the bad guys instead of trying in vain to be one. And... _and_ those chains had just been dramatically loosened from about his wrists, had gone from snug-fitting shackles permitting little freedom of movement to loose twine that he could shake off any time he chose.

Right here, right now it finally sank in that he _liked_ the job, _liked_ being able to use and stretch his skills and learn new ones, and with the Official paying the bill, could probably stretch them even further. He could _use_ the resources at his disposal to become even better at what he loved most and not have his conscience twinge every time he broke into some old coots place to steal the jewels stashed in a wall safe behind some presidential portrait. And for the most part, he'd be able to do it without risk of imprisonment. The risk to life and limb would still be there, a hazard of both occupations, but one he could live with.

When the hell had that happened?

And, more to the point, what the hell was he going to do about it?

The next several minutes were a decided blur as he trailed after Hobbes to the Official's office where the Fat Man and his newest lackey, whose name Darien hadn't even bothered learning as he most certainly wouldn't be here all that long, listened as Hobbes explained the situation to them. Darien took up a spot holding up a wall over by the windows, staring blankly out them as he mulled over the epiphany he'd just had and how it would affect his decision with the gland. He knew he would find work on the outside, work that he would be good at and make more than decent living off of, but would that be enough?

Maybe... just maybe the dream _wasn't_ about Alyx, as he'd become convinced of. Yes, he would lose her, twice over in some ways, if he left, yes, he would gain his freedom from the Agency, but as he had realized just moments before he already had it. All the things he wanted were right here, why would he walk away from it? If that were true, and it certainly was beginning to seem that way, then the dream wasn't trying to show him what he'd lose if he left, but _what he already had._ And with some actual effort on his part he could possibly gain so very much more.

And he liked that idea. More than that, he didn't want to know what was coming for him or any of his friends. The future as it was supposed to be: an unknown. A level playing field for all of them. Okay, so, he knew about an incident that _might_ happen five-ish years from now, but everything in between would be an adventure and a challenge. And challenges had become something he truly relished, whether it was work or friendship, or love. No wonder he and Casey hadn't worked out, he'd been able to play her from the start, string her along for over a year and, even after having the lie discovered, still convinced her to help him, even if she had ultimately reneged. He'd had her figured out five minutes into their relationship. He couldn't say that was true about anyone else currently in his life and he thrived on it. The adrenaline highs of thieving exchanged for those of spying. Every single day offering new challenges and opportunities, and, one day, he might very well be able to say he loved his job.

This job.

And if that wasn't the most astonishing realization he'd had in a long, _long_ time.

After who knew how many minutes, Hobbes got his attention and they left the Official's office for parts unknown since he hadn't been paying any attention to the conversation, which apparently hadn't needed his input. A good thing, probably, since he wouldn't have been able to string two words together without having to seriously think about them. He'd've babbled on incoherently, or just grunted generic sound effects, which would have done just so much to impress his boss. Why was it the big revelations of his life always seemed to make themselves known when he had the least amount of time to deal with them? He raked his hands through his hair and sighed deeply, deciding to shelve the issue until this job had been dealt with.

"You okay, Fawkes?" Hobbes asked with real concern in his voice once they were out of earshot of the boss' office.

"What? Oh. Yeah, just fine, why?"

" 'Cause you weren't paying a lick of attention back there." Bobby hooked a thumb back down the hallway, then palmed open the stairwell door. "You worried about the kid?"

Darien shook his head. "No. No more then usual, anyhow." He leaned heavily on the banister until it began to creak under his weight and he eased up the pressure. "Why? Did I miss something important?"

"Not really. The Official approved working with the kid without gloating... too much."

"Which means he's at least suspected the cases were related all along," Darien stated, knowing it had to be the truth. The Official definitely knew how to play the game, and played it exceedingly well.

"Wish we'd figured it out sooner," Hobbes grumbled. "Kid still has to finish her other job, but can now officially assist us with ours. So she won't be getting much sleep until it's over." He paused at the door that led back to the garage. "I hate dumping more work on her when I know she's already tired."

"She'll understand, she always does. She'll just want a couple days off to recover after," Darien assured his partner, touched that he would worry enough about her to realize that even she had limits and she was swiftly nearing the end of her reserves. She faked conscious and raring to go so well they often forgot that there was a very real human being behind the super powers, one who might enjoy doing something other than work every now and then. But those were the moments to cherish, the ones that made the work so worthwhile, those moments of peace and quiet amongst the chaos and adversity.

"We all will. She ain't the only one going short on sleep the last couple of weeks. Four hours a night just don't cut it for old men like me." Hobbes smothered yawn that tried to make an appearance at the mention of sleep even though their day had begun not all that long ago.

"We'll see what Alyx has found and make a caffeine run while we plot our next move. Unless we can figure out where our guy is working from we've no way to find him." Darien pondered for a moment. "Maybe she can mod one of the programs to allow it to follow the geek beyond the cyber-cafes or something. There's gotta be a warm body behind the curtain running the show, we just got to figure out how to get to him."

"And food. It's early, but this might turn into a long day, we need to refuel while we can," Hobbes said in a no nonsense tone. That Hobbesian mother-henning being put to good use for a change instead of annoyance.

"I hear the call of the wild Starbucks in our future," Darien said with a laugh as he pushed open the door into a wall of music. Alyx had this thing for playing her alternative rock insanely loud when she had to do some serious computer work, be it programming or hacking. Said it gave her a way back, a connection to reality, if she ended up going in deeper than she intended. Plus, she had this thing for multi-tasking. She simply worked more efficiently if she had a minimum of two things going on at once. Weird, but worked for her brain that tended to run at warp nine. Yeah, she was slowly and surely turning him into a geek by proxy, not that he minded at all as it meant he got to hang out with her pretty much whenever he wished.

They came around the van, Darien expected to find her hunched over the laptop, her mind having clearly gone far, far away as she tried to tease out the clues they needed for the job... jobs at hand. Instead, she sat on the floor of the van in front of the open side door, a frown on her face, head bopping in time to the music, paper in front of her on which she appeared to be doodling. The instant she noticed them, the music lowered its volume and she tipped her head up to greet them.

"Bossman in the loop?"

"Yep, and officially sanctioning our being read in," Hobbes said, grabbing one of the camp chairs and settling down, making himself comfortable while they planned their next move. Darien followed suit, as the look on Alyx's face did not bode well for someone, most likely them if their track record were any indication. "I take it the news is not good?"

Alyx shrugged. "Not bad either. I've pretty much confirmed, based on a comparison of attacks and hacks, that we are indeed working the same case. I've informed my liaison of the situation and he's not very happy. Thinks the Official should have been sharing info all along." She shifted pulling one leg up and swinging the other in clear irritation.

Hobbes muttered something derogatory under his breath. "We didn't know ourselves until thirty minutes ago."

"I pointed that out," she told them, "he did not appreciate my revelation of the obvious."

"So now what? You gonna work both sides, or do you maybe have a program that'll let us backtrack him past the cyber-cafes." Darien could tell she was not happy about something, something more than having to deal with the small minds of the military who wanted their toys back yesterday even though that had been, so far, impossible. He'd put nothing past the sassy redhead seated before him.

She sighed. "Wish I had a program for that, really I do, but this is something I'm going to have to be there in person for. So I'm tagging along on your handle hunt today, boys."

Hobbes nodded. "They don't want you to finish up your end of the job?"

"Of course they do, but as I also had to point out, if we catch the perpetrator he won't be breaking in any more and then I'll be able to retrieve the missing data and upgrade their security without having to fend off attacks at the same time."

"And they want you there to safeguard their precious computers in person," Darien added in. "You can't watch every computer the military has at once... can you?" He knew the answer, but hoped to simply ease the tension he could feel radiating off her even from several feet away.

She managed a dry chuckle. "They seem to think so, but I can't..." She trailed off thinking. "At least I don't think I can. Not like I've ever tried something on that scale."

"And you ain't starting today," Hobbes insisted. "Too damn risky. Might get lost out there in the... the..."

"Internet?" Darien suggested, trying to be helpful. "Cyberspace?"

"Yeah, that." Hobbes stabbed a hand at her for emphasis. "Don't do no one any good if you're here, but your mind is lost elsewhere. So no trying to play SkyNet and control all the machines. Got me?"

"Hobbes, a Terminator reference, really?" Darien said around a laugh.

"And used correctly, no less," Alyx added, smiling. "Promise, Bobby, no world domination via the internet for me. Unless it'll save the world or something."

"Agreed." Hobbes nodded. "You want to go change and we'll hit the road?"

Alyx pouted. "But I like this outfit."

"Yeah? So does Fawkes, and he'll be completely useless so long as we can see your knickers," Bobby pointed out at a virtual growl.

Darien shrugged and grinned. Not like it wasn't the truth, and while Alyx could probably focus on the job, he would most certainly have issues. Better that she change and save the outfit for a rainy day when they didn't have the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. Or whatever the mess was this time.

"Oh, all right. I have some jeans in my office. I'll toss those on, grab my laptop, and be back in ten minutes." She stood up, stretching her arms over her head for a long moment, which made Hobbes grumble under his breath until they heard the soft pops as she wiggled her spine back into proper alignment. Darien caught Hobbes sneaking a peek of the tanned flesh revealed above the tights before clearing his throat and turning away to meet the amused look on Darien's face.

"All right, boys, play nice and I'll be back in a few." With a spring in her step that looked to be forced, she made her way out of the garage, leaving the two of them alone for a few minutes.

"She's exhausted, Fawkes." Hobbes stood and put the chair back to its corner, moved over the boom box and turned it off, then pulled the plug on the charger for the computer, coiling up the cord and tossing it in the driver's side window.

"And you would like me to do what about it?" Darien asked as he climbed into the van, grabbed the cord, and hung it on the hook mounted into the end of the table. He noticed the laptop remained up and running, already hunting for those handles they knew to be used by the hacker. He slid the side door shut and moved to the passenger seat, claiming that as his own for the time being. Alyx would sit either in back with the computers or on the jump seat with the laptop on her lap.

Hobbes slithered into the driver's seat and started the van, backing it out into the parking lot and getting it aimed the right way 'round, so they'd be ready to go when Alyx returned. "Dunno, just thought I'd mention it is all. We'll work in shifts like always, just need to make certain the kid takes her turn unconscious. She needs it as much as the rest of us humans."

"You including me in with the humans then?' Darien wondered aloud, mostly facetiously. He hadn't felt like a normal human being since becoming the possessor of one refurbished multi-million dollar gland.

Hobbes just shot him a look that said quite clearly 'don't be an idiot, you idiot,' so Darien let the matter drop.

Alyx showed five minutes later, the skirt replaced with jeans, the combat boots still on her feet, the heavy make up gone and her hair had been pulled back into a simple braid. She had her laptop case and a cooler, probably stuffed with drinks and snacks she'd swiped from the tiny break room on the fourth floor. She slid open the side door, stored the gear then joined them up front. "All set, boys." She tapped a few keys on the computer. "Head over towards the airport, if you would."

"You got it, kid."

Minutes later they had merged with the downtown traffic.


	4. the road not taken

music: _Passenger_ by OneRepublic

_So, there's this Chinese Proverb that goes, "To know the road ahead, ask those coming back," which makes it very easy for me, since I just have to ask myself this time 'round._

_the road not taken_

_._

_I sat down in the chair next to her. They had disconnected all but the most necessary monitors and she was still covered in wires and tubes. The heart monitor gave a slow, but steady rhythm; the sound of the machine breathing for her was driving me crazy. If it weren't for the reassurances of both Mike and Dani that she was indeed still in there, just hiding from the world, I would swear she was being kept alive out of some perverse need to torture her. They had told me the inhibitor would wear off by tomorrow and if she turned off the machines again they were not going to try and save her, she would have made her choice. They wanted... hoped I could change her mind._

_I fished the bracelet out of my pocket and turned it over in my hands a couple of times. Gently, oh so gently, I lifted her hand nearest to me and slid it on her wrist. "I found this today, didn't even know I had it."_

_I didn't know what else to say. In all the months we had been together not once did either of us ever say that we loved one another, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think perhaps she never felt she needed to and I... I think I was afraid to admit I did. Some days our lives had been so intertwined that it became hard to separate the work from the living. Some days our work was about nothing more than living, surviving until the next moment. But when we had our time alone, words never seemed to be necessary. We could go from a near death situation to loving in a matter of hours. Words seemed so clumsy, so cumbersome, when we could simply show._

_But now all I had was words and I, who at one time spouted off quotes just to irritate my friends, could think of nothing to say._

Darien forced his eyes open with a groan of irritation, expecting to see the ceiling over his bed and not the interior roof of the van and it took him a moment to remember why he wasn't snug in his bed. That hacking case, they had a plan and were just waiting for their target to get back online so they could track him back to his evil lair... or mother's basement, which was far more likely in his opinion. He glanced at his watch discovering he'd actually had a fair three hours of sleep, the sun, which had been low in the west when he'd closed his eyes, had long since gone down, and it looked like they had moved locations.

Hobbes had vanished from the driver's seat so Darien twisted about to look into the back of the van expecting to find his two partners staring mindlessly at a computer screen, instead he found himself alone. Which kind of sucked as he could use the company right about now. He was tired of the dream, tired of it insisting that its reality could be the only one when he knew for a fact it wasn't, that important points had already been changed, or had never existed in the first place. As if it were some scene from a vivid alternate reality that kept intruding on this one, showing him what he had... would have lived if he'd stayed on the same path. Which was fine and dandy, if it were true, but at this point had become nothing more than a pain in his ass. He scrubbed his face with both hands wanting to talk to someone about it, but not really having anyone to turn to. He needed to do as Hobbes had suggested, look at the dream as intel, nothing else and then make the best decision he could with all the facts in hand. Weigh those pros and cons, make his decision, and stick by it for good or ill.

But not today, hell, not tomorrow most likely, if things didn't pan out tonight. And anyway, right now he needed to stretch the kinks out of his back, take a leak, and grab something to eat. Maybe Hobbes and Alyx were on a food run or the like, though leaving him alone didn't make much sense and wasn't normal. He opened the door and slid out, his legs less steady than he thought they would be, they had apparently chosen to nap a few extra minutes, caught himself as he looked about to see where they were. Directly across the street was The Hole, one of the weirder locations on the WiFi hacking list, but that had been used at least twice since they had started tracking their thief. This place catered to the high end gamer set and was literally a hole in the wall... thus the name. A stairwell led down to a darkened doorway and into the subbasement of the buildings on the block that had been converted into one business: The Hole.

Darien checked his pockets and found the van keys, made sure the contents were secure and locked it up tight, suspecting that his partners were inside. As he crossed the street he pulled out his phone and texted Alyx, might as well make certain she was in there and not waste time looking for her if she were actually at the Java Hut a block over. Her response came back seconds later, confirming she and Hobbes were indeed inside, and where to find them.

Inside he hit the bathroom first, then tracked down the gaming room she and Hobbes were hiding in. There were a half-dozen others in the room all involved in some first person shooter, which Alyx and Hobbes ignored, their focus on the two laptops set up on the bar before them. One was Alyx's personal computer, the other the one they'd been running Destiny and the tracer program from. In fact, it looked like the tracer program was running right now.

"Thought you said we shouldn't run the program off of the WiFi?" Darien asked as he sidled up behind her.

"You are correct, bub," she responded turning the seat about and grinning up at him. "I modded the security a wee bit, we should be reasonably safe."

"Plus, it's bait," Hobbes added, ignoring her pout. "We want him to try and use it, make it easier for the kid to track him."

Darien co-opted the next stool down for his ass. "Why here?" The guy behind the bar came over and Darien requested a coke to drink.

"I ordered you a burger. Figured you'd be hungry," Alyx told him, as she leaned back against the bar, watching the game playing out on the screen across from them. There were a mix of computer stations and game consoles in the room, but there only seemed to be the one group session going on at the moment; the computers stations on but unused.

"TigerLily you've got a bogey on your six," Alyx called out and, in response, one of the characters spun about, a hulking alien beast lumbering up from behind. One frag grenade later and a cheer arose along with thanks from the gamer whose handle had been TigerLily.

Hobbes chuckled and shook his head. "She's been doing that for the last hour, much to their appreciation." He waved a hand at the group of twenty-something gamers. "Made them much more willing to share the room with us when they realized she could predict where the bad guys are with plenty of time to spare."

"Us geeks gots to stick together," she stated primly. "As to why here; I saw a pattern in the data. There's and eighty-five percent chance our target will be using this locale tonight to continue his nefarious deeds."

Darien drank down about half the soda that appeared by his elbow, suddenly thirsty as sin. "Ah, now that makes sense. You could have woken me."

Hobbes shrugged. "No point, might be hours before this guy makes his move. And you need your beauty rest when you have her to keep up with." He winked, which made Darien shake his head and smile.

Hobbes had a point though, while Darien had aged quite gracefully, Alyx hadn't... at all. She'd looked like a teen when they'd first met and if she didn't make the conscious effort to appear as mature as her mind was she would still come across as a teen, early twenties at most and that would be pushing it. Given her unique ability to absorb energy from anything and everything about her, she might very well never age again, much like Wolverine from the X-Men comics, who also had the ability to heal extraordinarily fast. She might very well live forever, looking young and beautiful for the eternity of it. He could only wonder if she and Claire had considered that. It would be an interesting topic to bring up one lazy afternoon they had together. He made a mental note to do exactly that.

"So, what's the plan?" Darien asked, hoping they'd be willing to share even if ultimately he would be doing very little of the work. Alyx would be handling the computer stuff for certain, he and Hobbes were here mostly as muscle, protect her, protect the gear, protect each other, and hopefully track down their target with minimal damage to life and limb.

"The plan is to wait for him to make another attempt and track it back to the source. If we manage that, we head in in person and haul him into the Agency for a little chat," Hobbes answered.

"If the location is local," Alyx pointed out. "If he's working out of Colorado or Timbuktu, we'll make arrangements for him to be picked up and transported here."

"I imagine your jarhead friends will be wanting a chat with him?" Darien asked as his dinner was delivered. A monstrous burger, steak fries, and a half a pickle. His girl knew him so very well; he would have to remember to thank her properly later.

"After we've had our turn," Hobbes stated with a look of almost jealousy at the food Darien had begun to gleefully wolf down.

He may have not had much use for the Quicksilver on this mission so far, but he had the feeling that would be changing in the near future. Everything seemed to coming to a head and he knew better than to turn down the opportunity to eat. Fuel was mandatory for the high priced engine his metabolism had become thanks to the gland.

"Bobby, order a burger. We are going to be here for a while yet even if he hacks in five minutes from now." Alyx leaned casually back, elbows on the bar, seemingly fascinated by the game going on across the room from them.

Hobbes grumbled under his breath for a couple of minutes then sighed. "I know, but we did eat dinner-"

"Feh," Alyx interrupted. "We had cheese and crackers, literally. Eat, you may not get to again for a while."

Hobbes nodded. "You're right, as usual." He signaled the barkeep and quickly placed an order. "You hang out here, don't you?"

Alyx nodded. "Now and then. I like the game theory, especially with teams. Helps improve my tactics and deployment. Since I'm being sent out as lead more often I need to make certain I understand how best to use the people given to me."

"You could play chess," Darien suggested, only about fifty percent serious at best. Having worked with her plenty of times, he knew how good she was, whether as lead or follower. The fact that she _always_ wanted to improve impressed him, even as it made him want to shake his head in dismay. Every now and then taking a backseat and just letting things play out as they would, reduced the stress level. Some days she could manage that, but definitely not on this particular occasion.

She turned to face him, stole a fry, and then answered. "I do, a lot, but the pieces have no personalities. In real world situations you need to take that into account as well."

"You have learned well, grasshopper," Bobby stated, complete with really bad accent.

She preened while Darien tried to laugh and swallow at the same time. Hobbes handing out compliments had always been rare, handing them out to Alyx, in person no less, was astonishing. Though Darien wouldn't disagree. She was good, damn good and had probably saved both their asses any number of times. Made him wish they worked together more often, plus it was just far more fun. He knew the opposite would be occurring, now that her skills were back up on the proverbial job market. She'd be gone even more often, risking life and limb out there somewhere, possibly getting hurt, or worse, killed without him by her side.

And he wanted to be by her side. Wanted to be able to hang out with Bobby whenever, most especially when Alyx couldn't be in town. Wanted to get his Keeper to drop her guard every now and then and just be Claire. Wanted to continue to work this crappy job until it stopped being fun, which wouldn't be for a long time yet and... and he wanted the gland out. But not today. Maybe not for a while.

He sat there for a long while, watching his two friends as they chatted, offered advice on the game going on in the room and were just themselves, their guard, not down, but relaxed in the far from threatening situation they currently found themselves in. A moment of peace in the midst of what had often become a life of upheaval. A moment he would treasure.

.

The hours drifted by, the game ongoing, with Darien and Hobbes each taking a turn playing, neither very well, when one of the gamers took a break to stretch legs or go outside to smoke. They tried several times to get Alyx to play, making it obvious she had on other occasions, even giving away the handle she played under - thesilverqueen - much to her dismay and her partners' ongoing amusement. It was nearing one a.m. when the game took a turn for the worst, and the group found themselves cornered and surrounded with no hope for escape. They went down fighting, but were defeated all the same, and soon as the end credits began to roll, five of the group turned on the sixth.

"Nerfherder we were supposed to go left at the dock, not bloody right," the bleach blond neo-punk groused. "Weren't you listening?"

Nerfheder threw up his hands, clearly the newbie to the group, even though an excellent gamer, as everyone else had taken Alyx's advice without blinking. Darien leaned over to Alyx. "How'd you know about the short cut anyway?"

Alyx shrugged. "Backdoors like that one are built right into the game. Like Easter eggs in a DVD movie. Usually you find them through sheer luck. I can... see the code in the game if I concentrate." She looked up at him, humor in her eyes. "Tired? You can grab another nap if you want."

Darien shook his head. "I'm fine, but Hobbes looks to be wilting. Maybe the old man should go crash for a while."

"I'm just fine, junior," Hobbes groused around a yawn. "Just need some coffee." He signaled the bartender, who set a fresh pot on to brew.

"All right, boys, I have a few questions for my peers over there, if you think you can handle watching the monitors for me."

Hobbes waved a hand at her. "Go. You've been wanting to talk to them for a couple hours now, it must be important."

Alyx slid off the seat and strode away. Darien glanced at Hobbes who indicated with a tip of his head that Darien should probably follow along. Tucking hands into his back pockets Darien did exactly that. The greetings had commenced by the time he had arrived. Several of the gamers - both male and female - practically fawning over Alyx... _thesilverqueen_, making it clear she had a reputation not only here, but at other gaming locales in the area. Well, it certainly seemed she had managed to acquire a life outside of the office and himself. When had she managed that?

"Who were you playing against?" she asked as Darien came within earshot and slid in behind her. Without hesitation, she leaned back against him, marking her territory, much to the disappointment of at least two of the females... and one male standing about her.

"Mayhem," the dark haired kid in a polo shirt that radiated a pure geek vibe answered.

"Out of Hong Kong?" Alyx questioned, and got a round of nods in response. "She's damn good... but beatable."

Darien could practically feel the smile, which meant she had defeated this Mayhem personally on a previous adventure.

"And who's the beanpole? He ain't no gamer, that's for sure." That from the female blonde with bad attitude and tattoos on both arms.

"Hey, I warned you I sucked before I even sat down," Darien argued, but amiably. They seemed more curious as to why their gamer queen was dating someone who was clearly a non-geek.

"This is my partner, Darien Fawkes, and he has many uses besides computer geekery. That's my role on the team. Two of me would be scary."

That got laughs from everyone and broke the slight coating of ice that had formed over the group at his apparent possessiveness of Alyx. "Have you guys been having lag issues the last couple of months?"

That got more nods. "Yeah," the tattooed blonde said, stepping up to field the questions. At a guess she spent the most time here of the group. "Late at night especially." She looked up at Darien, not that she was shorter than him by much; she easily topped Bobby by a couple of inches. "This place is open pretty much twenty-four/seven and the regulars notice when there's a problem."

"Plus management is getting tired of giving refunds when the servers crap out," the tall dark-skinned kid added. "But it's not like DOS attacks, this is different."

"Which is why you're here, I'm betting," the polo shirt said with a knowing look at Alyx.

"Yep. It's nice to have niche to fill," Alyx replied with a soft laugh that got smiles from everyone. Looked like she definitely had an in here, not a single one of the gamers appeared to be suspicious. "Is the lag cross-platform or computer only?"

Heads shakes from all. "Everything slows down to a crawl, like something is sucking up all the bandwidth. But it's not a regular occurrence, and this isn't the only place having problems. Top Gun has been having the same issues. You think they're connected?"

Alyx shrugged. "Could be. I'll know more when I know more."

"Ah, so mysterious. So, what are the boys for? Your muscle?"

"That too. They have their uses." Alyx tipped her head to the side. "I know you're supposed to have this room all night, but I need it. I've already arranged for you guys to have the Oubliette on my dime... if that's okay with you."

"The... the O room." The poloed geek went down onto one knee and took one of her hands into his. "My Queen, we will be more than happy to accept this boon from you."

Alyx laughed, while the blonde chick smacked the kid on the shoulder hard enough to rock him, but clearly not hard enough to really hurt. Kid was stronger than his outer geek shell would hint at. "Get up, you're embarrassing her... and us." She met Alyx's eyes. "We pay your way next time we game, agreed?"

"Done," Alyx agreed with no hesitation. "I'll leave word on the board when I'm available."

A finger with a black painted nail was wagged at her. "Soon."

Alyx tipped her head down in acknowledgement. "Soon."

"All right, ya noobs. Off to the O. Let's see if we can get Mayhem back online for another round."

Moments later, with the exception of the barkeep, the room belonged to them and them alone.

"Kid, what the hell did you do to them?"

Alyx shrugged. "We game, talk geek, the usual. I like them."

"And they certainly seem to like you," Hobbes stated with a frown. "Exactly what do they think you do?"

This one Darien was pretty certain he knew the answer to. " 'Net security, I bet. You find 'em, we get to crack their heads."

"And that is one bet you would win. Not that I told them anything, Just a comment here and there and let them draw their own conclusions." She shrugged. "Seemed to be the easiest way to handle the situation, and it allows me cater my cover personas to suit my needs."

Hobbes chuckled, shaking his head. "Pretty damn accurate in this case. All right, how do you want to set this up?"

"I am gonna take our bait and get nice and comfy on the sofa over there. When he strikes, I'm going to have to go deep, I really don't want to tip over off the stool and crack my fool head open." She picked up one laptop while Bobby grabbed the other and the three of them made their way over to her chosen location.

Once she had everything set up the way she wanted, it became a waiting game. They chatted, played some games just to kill time, might as well since she was paying for the room, and waited.

.

Darien had dozed off, legs stretched out before him, hands on his stomach, fingers laced loosely together, Alyx sat beside him, one of her hands resting lightly on his thigh, her body a warm, welcome presence beside him, as he did nothing more than relax and enjoy her company. He wished they were home in bed, but at least they were together. Alyx was coaching Bobby through some complex game, explaining how to kill the monsters, switch gear, and other piddly stuff that seemed to be second nature to her.

"Uh, what just happened," Hobbes groused and Darien cracked open one eye to see Hobbes' character stuck in the middle of a swing, the sword a jagged line that was far from natural, the monster frozen with it's mouth open in a roar.

"Looks like we're in business." Alyx picked up the bait laptop and pressed a few keys.

Darien sat up straighter, yawning, one hand scratching the back of his head. "This our boy?"

"Looks like. Yep," she confirmed. "And there's three different handles showing up at four different locations." She tapped a few more keys. "Interesting."

"Define interesting," Hobbes requested.

" 'Oh, god, oh god, we're all going to die.'," she replied without looking up from the screen, but Darien caught the grin that curled her lips upward, which meant they should probably get whatever she was referencing, but didn't. He'd ask later and would be willing to bet there would be a movie or TV show involved. That was okay with him, he generally liked her viewing choices, even if they didn't always mesh perfectly with his style. Hard to complain about a chick who hated romantic comedies, but loved action flicks and was a die hard Bruce Willis fan.

"Hand me my laptop, please?"

Darien did so, balancing it on his leg while she typed one-handed on it. After a couple minutes, she smiled. "Oh, you are a sneaky one, aren't you?"

"Kid?"

She met Bobby's eyes. "He's good, damn good. In fact if it weren't for the obvious reality that I'm right here, I would swear I was the one doing this."

"Huh?" Not Darien's best line by any means, but summed up his feelings reasonably well right now.

"He's not hacking in via the WiFi, he's dialing in, like I do with Destiny, and taking over the servers." Alyx sounded impressed. "What an elegant solution to the power problem. Dial into the server farms at WiFi hubs and use their combined power to attack. And tonight he's dialed into four of them. Though this one here at the Hole is by far the largest."

"Well, let's cut him off then," Hobbes suggested getting to his feet.

Alyx shook his head. "No we want him to try and hack in... whatever his target is tonight."

"But I thought you... we were supposed to be stopping that," Darien said, confused at the sudden turnaround.

"Yes, but I can't track him if we cut him off. I need him in the system, trying to hack in to wherever he's targeting tonight so I can trace him back to his hidey-hole."

"Oh... duh."

She patted him on the knee. "S'all right. Okay, I'm going to have to go deep for this one. Do _not_ try to pull me out. Bad things could happen. Just let it play out. Understand." She looked from one to the other until she got nods from both. "All right, see you on the flip side."

And with that, she was gone. Her mind dove into the computer system, leaving her now very vulnerable body behind. While not the first time she had done this, it still freaked Darien out just a little. Usually the connection she made was fairly light, and she could maintain a conversation while doing her searches in the system, but not this time. Her body had gone almost completely limp; he set very gentle fingers against the pulse point in her throat and felt the slow, strong beat there, which made him sigh in relief. Bobby took her laptop from him and set it back on the table.

"She's fine, Darien."

"For now," Darien groused. When Bobby looked like he was about to take exception to that Darien waved his hand. "I know, this had to be done, and she's the only one who can do this. But how long do we wait? If the sun comes up and she's still in there, do we just sit here and pretend everything is all right?"

"If she's still in there when the sun comes up I'll be calling the Keep, and we'll go from there," Hobbes answered without hesitation. "In fact I'm giving this an hour and no more. Catching this guy ain't worth her life."

"No shit." Darien heaved a huge sigh and forced himself to calm down. It would be ironic if now that he'd made his decision, even if he'd not yet shared with the class, he lost her, even more ironically lost her to the job. That because of his indecision and inability to come to terms with the importance of the people around him that she died sooner rather than later. That because he stayed, those five years she would have had to live her life would be taken away. And it would be all his fault.

Jeez, could his outlook on life get any lower?

Why did he always assume the worst in any given situation? Yeah, the way his life had been kind of justified it, but the last few years things hadn't been _that_ bad, had they? Gained a gland, lost a brother. Gained friends - Bobby and Claire and Alyx - that he would never have even met under normal circumstances. But since then hadn't things gotten better? Hadn't life begun to go his way? First the inhibitor? Now the removal technique. His freedom handed to him on a silver platter.

Maybe... no it was definitely past time he stopped being a pessimist. No, his life was not perfect, far from it, but perfect would be so very boring. He looked from Alyx to Bobby, who had his attention focused on the computer on her lap, the data scrolling by apparently interesting in some way that Darien would probably never be able to understand. Which was just fine with him. He'd learn the basics to get by and... and maybe it was also time to do more than just get by with his life. Maybe it was time to be proactive and figure out where he wanted to be in five years.

.

It had just about hit that hour mark when Alyx's computer and both their cell phones sprang to life. Both men receiving texts at the exact same moment her computer delivered an email to itself. An email that opened to reveal an address and a picture. The exact same information had been delivered to both their phones, though Bobby hadn't gotten the pic, as he had yet to upgrade his phone and couldn't see the pretty pictures.

Hobbes frowned, when Darien showed him the image. "I really got to get a new phone."

"Yes, you do. Alyx chose this one for me. We text quite often when she's out of town on jobs."

The very same Alyx who chose that moment to return to awareness; and without liking it very much it seemed. She squinted in the dimly lit room, carefully picked up the laptop and gingerly set it on the table before managing a pitiful, "Ow."

"Kid?"

She turned to Bobby as blood began to drip from her nose. "Just get him," she mumbled, barely coherent as her eyes rolled back and she passed out cold.

"Shit," Darien swore, catching her as she tipped forward towards the table. He just barely kept her from smashing her head into the solid surface. "Call the Keep..."

Hobbes was already ahead of him, his phone to his ear. "Sorry for the early wake up call, but the kid has done it again. Yeah. Out cold with a nose bleed. We're at a geek place called The Hole-"

Darien shook his head, cutting off Hobbes' words. "Have her meet us at the location," he pointed at the address on the laptop. He could feel Alyx poking the back of his head, making him want to get up and run from there, the urgency unmistakable. They needed to move on this, and now. He shifted Alyx, holding her securely in his arms and got to his feet. "We'll need both computers."

Bobby nodded and stood as well. He frowned but didn't argue. "Change of plans Keep, you're gonna need to meet us on the road. I'll text you the address, just get there as fast as you can." He glanced over at his two partners. "She ain't doing too good."

'Too good' would have been a step up in Darien's opinion. Not only was she out cold, but she had gone beyond limp, and, aside from the absolute certainty that she was somehow her urging him to get moving on this and pronto, would have been willing to bet no one was at home. Yet part of her seemed to have remained stubbornly aware and made every effort to relay the importance of the situation on him. And that contact, as visceral as it might be, was the only thing keeping him from going into hysterics. He did not like his girl being hurt, wanted no part of losing her again. Her death, fake as it had been had _hurt_ him in ways he had yet to be able to describe. It had been like losing part of himself, a part that until it had gone missing he hadn't realized he needed to survive. Without her his life would not be one worth living, he would just be surviving, getting by day to day with nothing to look forward to and no motivation to do anything of value.

Within moments Hobbes had the two laptops packed into their bags, which he slung over his shoulder and led the way back out into the early morning city. False dawn hadn't yet touched the sky, but you could feel it in the air and knew it would be coming soon. The city was stunningly silent at this time of the day, not even the distant rumble of truck tires on the highway could be heard, no dogs barking, no birds yet beginning their pre-dawn rituals. They'd managed to catch that one moment in this ever-moving city when all was still. And they were going to be the ones to shatter that silence.

Hobbes got the passenger door to the van opened and waited until Darien had managed to climb in with Alyx still in his arms. Given the configuration of the new van there was no place to stick Alyx other than the one chair, and she wasn't likely to remain upright past that first sharp turn Hobbes was certain to make in the near future. So she would get to ride up front with the boys. Once they were reasonably situated, Hobbes shut the door, booked it around the front end, climbed in the driver's side, and shoved the laptops on the floor. With some creativity, they got the seatbelt secured around both Darien and Alyx. Seconds later, with a squealing of tires and black smoke drifting up from the rear of the van, they peeled out and onto the empty street.

Hobbes made an effort, a small one admittedly, to obey the traffic laws as he drove through the silent city, their target literally across town, and normally a fair forty minute or better drive in the typical daytime traffic. Hobbes pulled off a speed record and did it in twenty minutes. He cruised past the address at just over the posted speed limit and circled the block, before parking three doors down under the cover of a low hanging tree.

He double checked his phone to verify the address and shook his head. "We're in the suburbs, Fawkes. High end suburbs at that. And while our target is definitely young, he ain't a kid."

Darien agreed. This place looked to be too upscale for their target, but he didn't doubt Alyx's info. "Living in his parent's basement?" he suggested. "If we had a name we could run down more info."

Hobbes smacked himself in the forehead. "D'oh!"

Darien snickered at Hobbes' most excellent Homer Simpson imitation. "What?"

Bobby grabbed the laptops, pulling out Alyx's baby and waking it up from its nap. "We was in such a hurry to get out of there that we didn't think to even do a basic search on the address."

Alyx's laptop had access to all sorts of nifty stuff, including databases with lots of information. She had the ability and permission to get into all sorts of places that Darien had only begun to learn about since he had only recently begun to take an interest in computers and their usefulness to the job. He hadn't even bought one for himself yet, but figured it would be coming soon. Alyx was too much of a tech-head to let him get away without having one for much longer. Besides, it would give them another way to stay in contact when she was on those long distance loan jobs.

"Did you feel like you had to get out of there too?" Darien asked, wondering if it had been more than his imagination.

Hobbes eyebrows bounced upwards and stayed there. "Yeah... the kid pulling her tricks again, huh?" He dug into the bag. "Where is that damn... Ah ha! Got it." He came up with the wireless connection for the computer and shoved it into place. Mere moments later he was typing away like a madman.

"At a guess, she felt that getting here was important." He wiggled enough to get the seatbelt undone, and shifted her so that her forehead rested against the side of his neck. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but his shirt had already been ruined, the baby blue now stained a dark crimson, which was depressing as he'd bought this shirt only a couple weeks ago. Good thing he hadn't paid full price for it. Incidents like this one were why he still shopped at flea markets and second hand shops, the job was damn hard on his clothes and he hated paying full price for something that would most likely get destroyed in some manner or other.

"No shit. My hair was damn near standing on end." He pressed a few more keys. "House is owned by a Stephen Richards, twenty-five. Freelance computer programmer. Has quite a tidy sum tucked away into his bank account and... his driver's license pic matches the image the kid sent us." He turned the computer so Darien could see the image. "Apparently, this professional geek gig pays pretty damn well."

"Well, then why is he doing this? For shits and giggles?" Darien wondered aloud. He could see Alyx doing that, though more to just see if it could be done, and while she might want to test her toys against the toughest competition possible, he doubted she'd do any real damage. Like Kate back in his first year here, with her fancy Quantum Computer. She'd broken into the DoD and the Nikkei stock exchange and worked them over like it had been easy as pie. Which it had been. Alyx... well Alyx was nearly as good, and might very well be better if she had the time to sit down and give any project the attention it really deserved. Look at the program she'd come up with in a matter of hours just for this case. What she could do if she really put her mind to it was a frightening thought.

"Could he just be a middle-man?"

Hobbes shrugged. "Dunno. There's been no unusual activity in any of his official accounts. And his phone records don't show anything hinky either. But that don't mean much since we've only had about five minutes to research the guy." Moving cautiously he slid out of his seat and moved to the back of the van with the laptop, which he set on the table as he grabbed the second one and set it up as well. The tracer program was still running, showing their target was still online and still trying to hack his way into some database somewhere and probably making a whole slew of military mooks want to tear their hair out at their inability to stop him. Then again if he were trying to hack into one of the databases that Alyx had modified the security on, he might just be banging his virtual head against a virtual adamantium wall. "He ain't finished that's for sure. I can't tell if he's having any success though." He glanced at his watch. "How's the kid?"

Darien shook his head. "Out cold and alive. You now know as much as I do." He didn't mean to sound grouchy, but he was worried about her and they couldn't exactly go after this Richards character until the cavalry had arrived. Speaking of which... "Where the hell is Claire?"

At that moment not one but three sets of headlights turned onto the street the next block down, as they rolled closer Darien recognized the outline of Claire's Cherokee and two of the Agency pool cars. The boxy outline of the LTDs was rather distinctive in the current market of curves and aerodynamics. The pool cars turned out their lights and pulled up curbside a couple houses down, while Claire crossed the street to park with her headlights directly in his eyes. She turned them off after moment and exited the vehicle with her medical bag in hand, the stethoscope already about her neck. She'd clearly come prepared for the worst, which was a good thing, he supposed. She was wearing about the last thing he expected to see, jeans and a t-shirt that read 'Trust me, I'm a Doctor' across the front. Honestly, he hadn't thought she owned anything so... so relaxed, the closest he'd seen her to dressing down had involved leather. He'd been certain she didn't even know what denim was or that clothes that could be made from it.

She opened the door and climbed up onto the step. "How is she?" she asked, the stethoscope moving into the proper position. With her help, he slowly shifted Alyx so that Claire more easily examine her. The medical bag ended up on the floorboards by Darien's feet once he'd shifted the seat back as far as it would go.

"Hey, Keepy," Bobby called out from in back. "Sorry to wake you."

"Not a problem, Bobby," she replied, her eyes meeting Darien's for moment. She ran through the usual suspects, a frown creasing her brow the entire time. When the stethoscope came off her frown only deepened. "What exactly was she doing this time?"

"Uh, back-tracking this guy's signal back to his house," Darien answered. He looked down at the woman in his arms who looked awfully pale in the overhead light of the van.

"And what does that entail?" If it wasn't for the fact that she needed to keep her balance, Claire would probably have her hands on her hips given the irritation easily viewed on her countenance.

"Following his computer signal in the system. She was in for almost an hour," Bobby explained from in back. "The computer wasn't able to track the guy, he was using proxies and bouncing the signal everywhere." He poked his head into the front. "She was the only one who could track the signal quickly."

"Which put her down for the count," Claire pointed out tone rueful. "All right, she is not going to like this but I need to speak to her before I dare risk giving her anything." She looked Darien in the eye. "Think you can wake her?"

"I can try," Darien answered. Behind him, the side door slid open and he could hear Bobby starting up a discussion with at least two of the Agency people who had followed Claire in. "You bring along the cavalry?" Yes, he was indeed procrastinating. If Alyx wanted to be conscious, she would be no matter how much actual pain she was in. It was rare when her stubbornness couldn't at least create a draw where her body was concerned. Pain was something to be dealt with, no more no less.

"Of course, and informed the Official of the little I knew. I expect you will receive a call in the near future, and you are stalling." Claire gave him a single eyebrow raise, which he would swear she had learned from Alyx as it the good doctor had never used that one at him before Alyx had joined them.

He nodded and shifted Alyx so that her face was nearer to his. He ran his fingers gently along her cheek wanting her to be certain it was him before he pushed harder. She could be insanely reactionary when woken suddenly, and it had occasionally involved flinging things, including him, away from her with her mind alone. Fists and other nearby objects had also been used. It wasn't fun, and it wasn't funny, but it was something he had learned to deal with since they'd begun sleeping together on a semi-regular basis. She had to deal with similar problems with him, as he still could have very violent dreams, and had been known to knock her out of his bed without being aware of it.

So this time, knowing she was hurt and in pain, he took every care to make certain she wouldn't react, at least not beyond the unavoidable discomfort that would be caused by simply returning to the land of the conscious and aware. He kissed her lightly on the forehead then said very softly, "C'mon, sweet thing, I need you to wake up for a few."

He felt a wash of awareness across him, her built-in self-defense mechanism checking to make certain the coast was clear. She swallowed and shifted, trying to wake up as requested, but clearly, not having an easy time of it. He could tell Claire was getting impatient, but would not rush this. If she really needed to remain unconscious, he would not force her to wake. "S'okay, baby, take your time, but we do need some info from you." He hoped that the reminder that they were still working a case would help draw her back to the surface.

A moment later she sucked in breath of air, a sob escaping as it was released. "Hurts," she said, the single word badly slurred.

"Yes, I imagine it does," Claire commented, wisely keeping her voice soft. Darien knew the Keeper was still pissed at Alyx, and could really cause her pain if she wanted to. It would appear, however, that she still placed her role of doctor above that of angry and hurt friend. A good thing as Claire was pretty much it for who to go to for help in this situation. "Can you open your eyes for me?"

"Maybe?" came the dubious response, but she proceeded to make a valiant effort at just that. The silver was dull as tarnished pewter, which meant the headache was beyond bad, but her eyes weren't bloodshot, always a good, or at least a less bad sign. "Shields are shot," she informed them.

That, however, was less than good. She wasn't broadcasting which meant she was holding it together by the skin of her teeth, but it probably meant she was picking up on everyone and everything nearby and all that noise in her head would just add to the pain she already felt. She needed to pass out completely, preferably with one of the many drug cocktails they'd come up with to help ease the pain and block the incoming signals when her control crashed. "Not long, I promise you," Darien assured her, hoping to god Claire would back him up on this one. Now was not the time to be pissy and vindictive.

"Have just what you need, Alyx. Just need to gauge your level of pain first."

Alyx chuckled for all of a second before it morphed into a groan of pain. "Fifteen," she finally said when she had some measure of control back.

"Huh?" Darien asked, looking from one woman to another in confusion.

Claire reached into the kit and came up with a vial and syringe. "Her pain level on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst."

And she had said fifteen, which meant... she really needed to be drugged into unconsciousness right about now. "Shit," Darien muttered.

Alyx's hand reached up, and curved about his neck, her fingers freezing cold even though the temperature at this early morning hour was quite comfortable for him. "Stop worrying, I'll be fine," she assured him. Her eyes unfocused then and he thought she was about to pass out again until she spoke. "Make sure he doesn't wipe his drives and don't turn him over to anyone before I get the chance to speak to him. It's important."

"Alyx, I can't-"

"You got it, kid," Bobby cut in from in back where Darien suspected a plan had been hatched. "We'll put him on ice until you get the chance to pick his brain."

"Cool," she said, her eyes slipping shut and hand shifting down as Claire moved it to allow her better access. The scent of alcohol was sharp and strong in the close confines of the van even with assorted doors and windows open to allow in the early morning breeze. A second later the needle had been inserted in one of the many veins easily visible in Alyx's forearm. She sighed softly as the drug hit, wiping the pain away and dragging her back into the Land of Nod.

"She needs to lie down," Claire stated, making it clear there would be no arguing about it.

"I think we have some blankets and such in the back. Emergency supplies," Darien told her, brushing a stray curl from Alyx's face. The moment the pain had faded her color had returned, which eased the ache on heart. He hated seeing her in pain, no matter how much a part of their lives it had become. They had both become poster children for beatings, both of them sporting bruises in multiple shades of color given how often they were punched, kicked or otherwise banged about. It was one of the odder hazards of this job.

"All right then. Bobby?"

"On it, Keep. Need to rearrange a bit to accommodate you two."

Darien stayed where he was, he'd be told when all was ready, and then he'd move, not before. Alyx didn't need any unnecessary jostling right now. Claire, however, had moved to the back, shoving the agents out of the way from the sound of it, to make certain things were set up to her specifications.

"That would be a sleeping bag, Bobby."

"I can see that, Keep. Kid must have stuffed it in here. She's always thinking ahead like that." Bobby didn't sound the least bit surprised. Alyx was known for doing stuff like that and because of that they always seemed to have just what they needed just when they needed it. Like she was psychic or something. That thought made Darien grin slightly. She rarely spent any time in the van these days, yet had planned for an emergency that might have never happened. Though he and Bobby did do a fair share of stakeouts in the van and a sleeping bag with blankets would be much more comfortable for a nap than trying to curl up in a seat that didn't actually recline thanks to the modified interior design.

"We're ready for you, Darien," Claire said a few minutes later.

Moving slowly, he made certain he had a solid hold on Alyx, slid out of the seat and onto the ground. He moved over to the side door, the foot of the sleeping bag stuffed into the far rear of the van, which would put her head near the very end of the side door, and that would allow Bobby access to the computers and such without having to climb over Alyx. With a little wrangling and help from both Bobby and Claire they got Alyx situated on the sleeping bag, pillow under head and a blanket tossed over her. She was out like a light, but looked far more comfortable now that she'd been given the good drugs.

Darien looked up at Bobby. "So what's the plan?"

Hobbes just smiled.

.

The plan had been stupidly simple, especially with the original version of Destiny up and running on Alyx's laptop. Richards' security was actually quite good, but not up to defeating an invader it didn't expect and Hobbes had it offline in under five minutes without Richards even being aware of it since he had still been trying to hack his way into some database that Alyx had upped the security on. So he ended up being beat by a girl... twice even though he hadn't known it. When Darien had appeared in a shower of Quicksilver flakes beside him, a gun aimed casually at Richards' head, he went still for a long moment, as if completely shocked at the sudden turn of events. As it should be as far as Darien could be concerned; why else use the Quicksilver if surprise failed to be the end result? Plus he had three Agency goons behind him, all doing their best dangerous and deadly routine at the poor geek.

The kid had slowly raised his hands, eyes wide in real fear and the Agency had taken him into custody. Easy-peasey.

The likelihood that this guy had come up with this plan on his own had dropped dramatically at his effortless capture. The guy had been so focused on the database incursion that he'd been completely unaware that he'd been discovered, much less that anyone had been nearby waiting to take him into custody. Hobbes still hadn't figured out how the different pieces-parts went together or what they were supposed to make, if anything, and the geek hadn't shed any light on the subject. He had wisely kept his mouth shut, not even asking for a lawyer, as if he understood this whole situation were more serious than the typical hacker-related incident.

Bobby and Darien both had a go at getting some information out of the kid, but without trying all that hard, given neither of them really knew the right questions to ask. So they'd made him as comfortable as possible without revealing where he was, who had him in custody or why. Not that he was entirely clueless as he clearly knew he was in deep shit and that anything he might say would most certainly be held against him. He also wasn't the usual geek they caught, and failed to collapse into a hysterical pile of 'I didn't do its,' or 'I didn't mean tos,' once they had him behind locked doors. He kept his cool and simply waited.

It had taken a fair twenty-four hours for the real interrogation to begin. Alyx had slept for twelve of that, her mind not letting her get away with abusing it so badly without paying the price. Darien had worried, spending as much time by her side as the Official would permit. When he hadn't been there, Agency goons had been left watching her door, making certain no one could get to her while she remained unable to truly defend herself.

That, in many ways, had been the worst part all along. When she overdid it, pushed herself to her limits and beyond the corresponding recovery time became inevitably longer, which left her vulnerable to outside attack.

On this occasion it hadn't been bad guys going after her that they ended up fending off, but the good guys, the ones who had hired her for a particular job, that had ended up stuck on hold because she had chosen to end the incursions instead of continuing to patch the holes created.

Granted, sleep and food to get fixed up wasn't too bad a deal when you thought about it, but those to whom she answered had gotten plenty antsy by that point. The Official covered it far better than the military mooks, who were practically frothing at the mouth wanting to know what the fuck was going on and instead getting the professional run-around from the Official.

As far as the boss had been concerned, if Alyx wanted first crack at Richards, she would get it. She had earned that much respect after managing to do what no one else had been able to - find him.

Alyx had gone to Richards' home not long after she'd returned to the land of the concsious. They'd left everything in place and she'd easily cracked his encryption and spent several hours pouring over every bit of data in his system. When she'd finished she'd told the Agents with her to bag and tag everything and bring it to the Agency.

Darien had tagged along, playing personal bodyguard, and watched all this with some amusement, only mildly surprised when the agents didn't give her even the slightest amount of backtalk. They had their marching orders, obviously and it had been made clear that on this she was very much in charge. Darien had felt mostly useless, but got the impression that she wanted his company more than anything, which he didn't really mind. She'd found something... something that had disturbed her, but she hadn't been ready to discuss it. She had her reasons he was sure, but wished she felt she could unburden herself with him. He'd listen, even if he ultimately didn't understand. But she hadn't been ready, maybe hadn't been sure that the conclusions she had come to were the truth, and, if nothing else, Alyx thrived on the truth. Even living a lie, or maybe because she spent so much of her time not being real, the truth had become the only thing she could believe in.

He hoped that one day she'd believe in him.

So now they sat in the tiny security office down the hall from the cage, waiting for Alyx to make her grand entrance. Richards had been treated like the geek he was. He wasn't some terrorist as far as they could tell. Aside from his sudden interest in hacking into government databases, his record was clean as a whistle, not even a speeding ticket or DUI to be had, no sealed juvie records to be dredged up and waved as proof of his being a bad guy through and through. No, he appeared to be nothing more than a twenty-five year old geek who had gotten into something way over his head. Kid hadn't even requested a lawyer. Just did what they asked when they asked and not done more than ask for some extra blankets - which had been provided - because the basement the cage he was in never really got warm.

When Alyx finally stepped into the room, Richards looked up from the magazine he'd been staring at and went dead still, as if shocked to find a girl standing there before him. He deliberately set the magazine down and then said, "So, you're the heavy?"

Alyx laughed. "You could say that, I suppose." She unlocked the cage and swung the door wide. "Let's talk a walk."

Richards sat there for a couple minutes, then shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

And that's just what they did.

A couple hours later they returned, cups of Starbucks in hand, and one hell of a story to tell.

.

Richards looked seriously uncomfortable in the presence of the Official, but he hadn't been given much choice in the matter. He was still under arrest for a major crime and had figured out that getting the Official on his side might be the only way he could save his ass. Alyx stood behind him at parade rest while he and Hobbes took up positions on opposite sides of the room. Greene and Alice stood outside the doors, just in case the kid chose to make a run for it.

"So, what have you got to say?" The Official made certain to sound gruff and the kid bought it completely.

"I'd like to say I was snowed, but that's not really true. I suspected what I was doing wasn't even vaguely legal, but that program..." Richards trailed off shaking his head. "I had to try it and the list it came with seemed to be the perfect way to test it." He practically glowed, his geek out on full display. Alyx, who Darien expected to be amused at the reaction, remained stoic, which meant she'd discovered a truth that had been more than a touch bitter to swallow.

Richards seemed totally unconcerned that he was spilling his guts without a lawyer present, which meant Alyx had cut a deal of some sort with him, and given the Official seemed to be playing along... it had obviously been pre-planned, not even Alyx would guarantee a deal without checking with the Official first. Then again, with what appeared to be her past involved she wouldn't want the little fish. Oh no. And no matter how good Richards might be, he was most certainly the little fish, the patsy, the scapegoat and if anyone else, say the jarheads, had caught him they never would have looked beyond him to see who had really been pulling the strings. Alyx clearly had, and knew that whoever had really been running the game, had to be big, _really big_. Which meant, luckily for Richards, that the little fish would get thrown back into the pond to swim away.

"How did you acquire the program?" The Official asked.

The kid shrugged. "Arrived in a package. No return address. Just a disk and the list of IP addresses."

"And you were dumb enough to look at it," Hobbes grouched. "It could have fried your drive."

Richards twisted about to look directly at Hobbes. "Which is why I used an older computer that was not tied to my main system." He huffed, plainly not happy that Hobbes thought he could be that stupid. He spun back around to face the Official. "The code was older, late eighties or so, but it was _amazing_." The awe in his voice was unmistakable. "I needed to do some minor mods to update it for current tech, but the program on its own was sound. The power demands for it to work effectively were a bit daunting at first - least without having to spend a small fortune on server farms."

"So you just co-opted existing ones," Darien stated. He'd kept up with the class on this one.

"An ingenious solution to the power issue," Alyx added, arms folded across her chest in irritation, even though her tone sounded praiseful. "Of course, there had been nothing comparable back when I wrote the program."

Richards froze, literally went stock still, eyes widening in shock as her words sank in. Darien resisted the need to laugh. The poor kid's mouth opened and closed several times before any coherent sound came out, and even then the geek squeaked it.

"You wrote that code? What were you? Ten?"

Alyx didn't even crack a smile. "Twenty," she stated. "You do realize that you need to forget that code, yes?" Her voice was ice cold, her look a glacier ready to roll over the world and destroy everything in its unstoppable path.

"Yes, ma'am," came the instant response, and from what Darien could see on the kid's face he meant it. "I have the feeling you'd know if I tried anything with it."

"That's 'cause she would," Hobbes stated in his very best mob muscle voice, which made Darien shake his head in order to keep from chuckling and spoiling the game. Yeah, they were just trying to intimidate Richards, to impress upon him the need to stay as far away from this as possible or risk losing a lot more than just a couple computers and a few hours of his life. That program could very well get him killed, and not just by those who had slipped it to him. The military would definitely like to get their hands on him and not for altruistic purposes that's for certain. They were pissed, and would be even more so when this was over with. Darien just didn't see Alyx turning Richards over to them, not with what she knew. Hell, they be as likely to have Richards rewrite the program for their own use as prosecute him for using it. And the government with that kind of power would never be a good thing.

"So you have no idea who sent disk to you?" The Official did not look happy at all, but Darien had the feeling his boss was simply putting on a good show.

Richards shook his head. "No. I'll give you the original disk and letter... which you probably already have as I didn't exactly hide them." He looked from one man to the other until he'd made his way about the room, his face paling dramatically by the time he met Darien's eyes. "Shit," he muttered under his breath.

The Official didn't bother to ease Richards' concerns; they needed him scared and wanting to behave like a good little geek. "Who did you send the data to?"

Richards blinked, confusion skittering across his features. "What data?"

"The docs you downloaded," Hobbes explained, but at the kid's continued confusion added, "One for each incursion. About a dozen in all."

Richards shook his head. "I didn't download anything," he told them, defiance in his voice for the first time.

Darien glanced at Alyx who met his eyes and nodded slightly. Letting him... them know the kid told the truth. Richards had no idea that the program had been grabbing files once it had penetrated the databases. Interesting, and not in a good way.

Richards twisted his head about to look up at Alyx. "Was it supposed to do that?"

She just smiled at him, quite plainly not about to give the kid an inch, at least on the surface. Darien suspected Alyx actually felt sorry for Richards, and was trying desperately to maneuver things to keep him as safe as possible, which wouldn't be very easy now that he had placed himself on the bad guys radar.

Richards slumped back into the seat, not really focusing on anyone in the room. His voice was a tiny thing when he spoke, "What's going to happen to me?"

Darien realized the kid had finally figured out he was in real trouble, the kind that could end up with him disappearing off the face of the planet should they so choose. Darien didn't think it would come to that, but it was a certainty that life as Richards knew it had come to an abrupt end... and that was a damn shame as it most certainly hadn't been the kid's fault other than being too curious for his own good. A situation with which Darien could most certainly sympathize.

"That's what we're going to decide," the Official informed him, making the kid cringe in his seat at the unforgiving tone. As if on some prearranged signal the glass fronted door opened and Agents Greene and Alice stepped in and stood together side by side in the open doorway.

Richards turned about to look at Alyx with real fear in his eyes. "I'm willing to do pretty much anything to fix this," he told her, his voice pleading.

Darien found it interesting that Richards turned to Alyx to make his plea, and not the Official. Somehow, the geek had figured out that Alyx and not the Official would be making the ultimate decision on his fate. Smart kid. Trouble was Alyx would probably be less lenient than the Official. The secrets she protected had forced her to learn how to make the hard decisions and stick by them, no matter what the ultimate cost and who had to pay it. Though more often than not she paid that cost herself.

Her harsh look softened. "I know, and I'll do what I can, but you've committed several serious crimes, even if you didn't consciously plan to. With the Patriot Act alone I could bury you."

He shut his eyes and swallowed hard. "I understand," he finally said, meekly.

"Good." The Official nodded to the bookend agents. "Take him home and stay with him."

Richards opened his eyes, focus switching to the one person who would be deciding where his life would be going from here.

Alyx stood there silent until he had left the room, the door shut tightly behind them, then shifted around to sit in the so recently vacated chair. "You or someone else needs to hire him now. Farm him out to the NSA if you need to, but stake your claim before someone else does." She looked exhausted and unhappy, but Darien would need to be patient to find out exactly why. _If_ he ever found out. He might very well be left off this particular need to know loop.

The Official shook his head. "I can't afford him and... we can't trust anyone else." He removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Anywhere we place him in the government could have moles, and then he'd be right back where he is now."

"A pawn," Hobbes stated. "And he's already proven he can take your programs and adapt them." He moved around and co-opted the corner of the Official's desk to lean against. "We could kill him."

Alyx managed a dry chuckle at that, which kind of surprised Darien. Her response, however, actually shocked him.

"Believe me, I've considered it." She sighed heavily. "Not that it matters, they'll just find someone else. Maybe I should go beat on Sims for a little while," she pondered aloud.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Darien asked cautiously, wondering just how seriously she had considered killing Richards. "None of this is really his fault, and somehow I doubt he really knew those IPs were government databases. He just wanted to play with the new toy." Darien felt an odd sort of sympathy for Richards, he'd made one wrong choice and ended up caught between a rock and a hard place... a story that was so very familiar to Darien. He hadn't planned to end up where he currently was, but he would do his utmost to make the best of it. Richards would just need to do the same.

Alyx turned to look at Darien, a smile on her face that failed utterly to touch her eyes. "I'll make some calls. I think I can arrange for him to be out of the line of fire and still do what he loves."

The Official nodded, apparently understanding what she was not outright saying. Darien, for a change, had a fair guess as to what she had planned, but wanted to confirm it. "Patrick?" he asked.

"Yeah. Seems like it would be a good fit for all concerned." She turned back to the Official. "I'll contact Mikey in the morning, he can coordinate with you and get Richards off the grid as fast as possible. I hate running roughshod over his life, but I don't see that we have much choice."

"Kid, if we didn't snatch him up your husband's people probably would and that... that would be bad," Hobbes stated, summing the whole situation up succinctly. "We could just prosecute him, y'know."

"Not an option, Hobbes," the Official grumbled. "That program needs to disappear, not make headlines." He aimed his beady eyes at Alyx. "Will you be able to cover?"

She nodded. "Some self-destruct bullshit. They'll buy it, especially once I've finished the upgrades." One hand came up to rub her forehead. "I'll spin it so we're the heroes as usual."

"Excellent." The Official gazed about the room, not looking anywhere near as happy as Darien thought he would. "You realize this is just the beginning, right?"

Hobbes frowned deeply. "Yeah. How did he get that program?"

"How about where did those files end up?" Darien added, wondering if that might be the more pressing concern.

The Official swore softly, much to Darien's amusement. "Can you find out?" the Official asked of Alyx.

"Will try to anyway. I didn't see those files on any of his drives, but they could be hidden on some invisible partition. It'll just take time to search them thoroughly," she answered, sounding just so thrilled to add yet another item to her never-ending to-do list.

"And if they're not there?" Hobbes asked, falling on that particular sword mighty bravely.

She shrugged. "Then I try to figure out who they were sent to." She sighed. "As to your first question... Finding the program would be my fault, I suppose," Alyx stated, sounding less than happy to be answering that question.

Darien had been thinking long and hard about that very thing and had come to the only conclusion possible. "The disks were at your home, right? Jess must have found them during the move and figured they might be worth something." The only person who didn't look surprised that he'd figured it all out was Alyx, but then she knew best how his mind worked, and, plus, he'd had more than a few hours at her bedside to ponder several of the more obvious questions and come up with answers.

"How many others?" Hobbes asked as he caught on to the potential problems that could be unleashed as well.

"Dozens," Alyx told him frankly. "Some probably worthless to them, games and such, but others..." She rubbed her face in her hands. "I wrote a lot of programs, especially when I wasn't working. Some... some are more dangerous than this one."

"Christ," Hobbes muttered. "You couldn't just change diapers, could you?"

That actually got her dour expression to crack for an instant. "Not something I can really control. When I see the code... it practically writes itself. It's just a matter of keying it in." She shifted forward in the seat, hands grasping together behind her head for a long moment before meeting Bobby's eyes. "My specialty was encryption keys, thankfully, but I wrote more than few code breakers as well." She turned her focus to the Official. "Someone with skill _will_ be able to mod and use them."

Darien flashed back to his time with Kate Easton who had tried to explain how she came up with her Quantum Computer. She saw an end product; coming up with the tech to achieve it was what took the work. He suspected it was similar for Alyx, or at least had been, with how her mind worked now she might very well be able to just take that end product and _make_ it happen, the code literally writing itself in the computer she'd chosen to hold it. Hell, he'd watched her do that very thing. Mod systems with little more than a blink of her eyes, the code seeming to appear of its own volition. He could only imagine her need to write programs back when married, with her husband trying to isolate her and bend her to his will, and her... her undeniable need to use what she had learned, to do something with those skills she'd acquired. Of course, she'd written dozens of programs.

And they'd all been left behind.

Granted, none of them had known that her husband had been working for some uber secret government organization that considered her their ultimate weapon and had been grooming her to become a mindless drone for said organization. No, they - meaning the Official - had thought she was nothing more than a housewife that had the potential to be one of the best spies in history due to a government experiment performed on her decades ago.

Anyone else would have caved, become nothing but a shadow of her former self and not been able to do anything without first asking permission from her oppressive spouse. But not Alyx. No, she had continued to work even against his wishes. Continued to write code, if only for her pleasure, when forced to drop the jobs she had been hired to do. Even then, her mind had been supercharged; allowing those codes to lie fallow would not be something she had been capable of.

"I'll make a list of everything I wrote, from most to least dangerous, with descriptions." She got to her feet and began to pace the width of the room in front of the desk. "Fuck," she muttered. "You should have done more homework before snatching me up, Charlie." She had stopped before the Official's desk and snapped a hand out at him to emphasize her point.

"So, it would appear," he agreed not taking her admonishment to heart.

Hell, she was right. The Official had made some serious assumptions about her life and they were now paying the price. Shit, had been for months now, and would continue to do so until they had managed to figure out who the fuck they were and convince them to back off.

"Will you be able to recognize one of your programs if it gets used?" Bobby asked, making certain to keep his tone calm and bland, as even he could tell Alyx was riding the edge.

She threw up her hands. "Maybe? Not like I watch every inch of the 'net or look over every program being written every single day." Her hands balled into fists and her steps became jerky as she returned to her irritated pacing. "And... and it would depend on how much they've been modified." She shot a glare at the Official. "Most likely it would be dumb luck, like this time."

"But you don't think it was dumb luck, do you?" Darien asked, causing her pacing to stop dead as she leveled a heavy gaze on him.

"Fawkes?" Hobbes prompted.

"Why else drop the program in our backyard? They, whoever 'they' are, were testing the waters." Darien shifted and stuffed his hands into his pockets, his back against the window sill, wondering if the Official had known this all along.

"But they sent him the program _before_ we set up... before the kid went into her nutso routine," Hobbes pointed out, scratching his head.

"I am well aware of that fact, Hobbes," the Official stated, his look darkening noticeably. He switched his focus to Alyx. "This could be a problem."

"No shit," she responded. "I'm probably the only person in the world who could track and disarm that program."

"Their gonna know you're alive," Darien pointed out needlessly. Which would make all their efforts a waste of time, the hell he'd gone through all for naught. They would come after her again, and it would be doubtful they'd take the subtle route a second time. Oh, no, next would be direct and to the point and, if they were half as good as he suspected, they would not be likely to lose and Alyx would be gone... again.

"They're going to _suspect_ I am alive, which will be more than enough to make them look closer." She gave up the pacing, her shoulders slumping in seeming defeat. "I can maybe cover my tracks on this one, especially since I did the trace through a gaming locale..." She trailed off, quite plainly thinking about how to salvage the situation. "Boss..."

The Official didn't hesitate. "Go. Do what you need to, fill me in when it's done."

Alyx glanced over at Darien, gave him a wan smile, and then booked it from the room. Whatever plan she'd come up with needing to find its outlet _now_.

Darien watched her go with only a twinge of worry twisting his gut. He wanted to be with her, if only to keep her grounded, but knew he'd be otherwise useless. If she needed him she would call and he'd happily go, but for now she would be better off alone. Besides there was still work for him and Hobbes to do to officially put this case to bed. "Want us to track down where the package came from?"

The Official shook his head. "No. Just pretend to, we don't want to poke the sleeping bear any more than we already have." He picked up his glasses and pretended to clean them with the end of his tie. "Make it look like we hit a dead end on that front."

"Probably all we'll hit anyway," Hobbes groused.

Darien agreed. It would be highly unlikely that these guys failed to cover their tracks. Alyx had already checked the disk and determined it wasn't the original, which meant there could be copies any and everywhere out there. Her defense program might turn out to be very popular in the near future, especially if the hacking program had been farmed out to others to play with. Richards wouldn't be the only geek smart enough to figure out how to adapt it to today's tech, not by a long shot. Which the 'Fish would be certain to take advantage of. Sell Alyx's counter to those willing to pay his sure to be exorbitant price for it. And when her other programs started making their grand entrances... It wasn't her fault, not at all, but she would blame herself, and feel responsible for all the havoc they would cause. And then... then she'd try to fix it. Yet more of her precious, limited time pulled away for the job.

Darien sighed softly wondering just when she'd have the chance to be Alyx.

"So we go through the motions, make it look like he cut a deal and make him disappear," Darien stated, summing up their job for the next couple of days.

"Which you should probably get started on," the Official pointed out.

Hobbes nodded, straightening his shoulders now that he had his marching orders. "On it, boss. Let's go, Fawkes."

Darien pushed off the wall and followed his partner out into the hall, wondering where they were heading first. "How long is this gonna take?"

"A couple of days to make it look good," Hobbes told him as he pushed through the stairwell doors at the end of the hall and headed down. "By then the kid'll probably have everything arranged to get Richards shipped off and we'll be able to turn in our final reports and put paid to this one."

"Hear, hear," Darien agreed, given it had been nearly two months to get to the point where they could see the light at end of the tunnel, he'd be more than happy to close the books on this job. Next time he'd leave the hacker cases to the geeks, he and Bobby were so not suited for it. The Boss needed to replace Eberts, like now, as none of the temporary right-hand agents had been of any real use other than from an organizational and filing standpoint. And even then, they'd spent more time catching up than doing any work that impacted the now. "Pizza and paperwork?"

"You buying?"

"Sure," Darien agreed, "but that means I choose where." He could feel the sly grin sliding across his face, as his preference for pizza places weren't always ones Hobbes approved of.

Hobbes sighed. "Mob pizza it is," he grumbled, but it seemed to be forced to Darien, which meant that he had pretty much convinced his friend that the quality of the food outweighed the money laundering they were contributing to. "Come on, we need the Keep's help faking up test results."

Darien chuckled. "Wonder how good the Keep is at faking it..."

Hobbes snorted. "I'll let you know when I find out."

.

Three days later Darien stood before the Official in his office. The two month long hacking case had finally been wrapped up and off the books. Richards had left late the day before, ostensibly to parts unknown, but they would be receiving regular updates via one Agent Corvan who had made all the arrangements to make Richards disappear. They had no clue what new name the kid would be living under, but suspected they'd be seeing the results of his work with Patrick's computer company within months. Richards was lucky, they could have dumped him onto WitSec and shoved him in some backwater city like Albuquerque to live out the rest of his days in obscurity. No, he'd get to do what he loved, which wasn't all that bad a deal when one thought about it.

Darien could relate, even if it had taken him way longer than it should to figure it out.

"All right, Fawkes, you wanted to talk to me," the Official grumbled, sounding as if he had a million other things to do and needed to be doing them right now and that Darien was keeping him from them.

"Thought you might want to know my decision on the whole gland situation, is all."

The Official harrumphed and settled back in his chair, utter boredom firmly in place on his features. "And that decision would be..."

Darien stuffed his hands into his back pockets. "I've decided to stay..."

That dangerous gleam appeared in the Official's eyes, so Darien made certain to be quick to dim it a bit.

"With some conditions."

The Official didn't bat an eye. "What conditions?"

And now the negotiations would begin in earnest. "First: no using Alyx's and my relationship against us. Same goes for Claire and Bobby. We're friends..."

The Official snorted.

"Okay, more than friends in some cases; and don't even pretend you didn't plan that from the beginning. No using it as emotional blackmail or what have you. You stay out of our personal lives."

The Official tipped his head slightly. "Agreed. Provided you take proper security precautions. Next."

"No more threatening to withhold the Counteragent or inhibitor. I'm here by choice, you get me the drugs I need when I need them so I can do my job." Darien knew this could be a touchy one as the Official loved holding onto that leash and would want little part in having it loosened even more than it currently was.

"Done," the Official agreed without even a hint of hesitation.

"And the research will continue, with full funding, to improve things. I have no interest in going permanently Quicksilvermad anytime in the future," Darien added, somewhat thrown by the Official's quick acquiescence to his demands, but he soldiered on.

The Official rolled his eyes, actually rolled his eyes, as if that particular request had been an obvious one. "Of course. Anything else?"

"I want you to honor the deal I made with Kevin. I want my pardon."

The Official nodded slowly, eyes narrowing. "Agreed, with some conditions of my own."

"Like what?" Darien knew the Fat Man would balk at something, but was a little surprised it was this one.

"There will times where you having a criminal record will be needed to sell your cover, an official pardon would interfere with that."

Darien hadn't considered that, and it wasn't as if they could wipe the minds of all the local cops who knew him by name. Being a spy in a town where the local constabulary recognized your face had created some serious problems from the get go; never mind all those criminal elements who knew him semi-personally. "Still, you can write it up and make some notation that it goes into effect the day I walk out of here." The Official opened his mouth, presumably to agree, but Darien cut him off. "And I get approval of any info that gets put out there. Can't exactly play the part if I don't know my own background info."

The Official frowned, as if he hadn't expected Darien to catch onto that. "Done. That means that when there is an undercover assignment you'll put in full effort. You do the job as a willing participant."

Darien actually smiled. "That's the plan." He ran a hand through his hair, surprised this had gone so easily. He knew there was a fair chance that the Official had planned for his invisible man to remain on the job and had expected this list of demands, which irked the hell out of Darien, as it had taken him weeks to come to an actual decision. Not that it really mattered. The Official usually had a plan in place for just about everything, why not for the chance Darien would stay? "However, when I decide to leave, even if it's weeks instead of years, you let me go, no questions asked, no arguments, no blackmail, agreed?"

The Official met his eyes with a gaze that was startlingly frank. "Agreed. Anything else?"

"Nope," Darien told him.

Now that seemed to surprise the 'Fish. Maybe he'd been expecting a request for a raise or something. Darien didn't need it. Alyx had made sure he had more money then he could cautiously spend in a lifetime and it collected an absurd amount of interest every month. No, money was not something he needed at the moment.

"I'll have the papers drawn up and ready to sign by the end of the week."

Darien pulled the digital recorded out of his interior pocket and showed it to his boss. "I'm going to hold you to that." Alyx hadn't asked why he wanted to borrow the tiny piece of equipment and had simply given him a quick lesson on its use.

The Official chuckled and pulled a similar one out of the top drawer of his desk. "As will I."

Darien gave him a nod of acknowledgement. Oh yeah, the Official had been prepared for this turn of events, but on this occasion Darien didn't mind.

"Now, I expect you will want to inform your Keeper of your decision."

And that would be Darien's cue to go. The Official had what he wanted and would now return to whatever he'd been doing when so rudely interrupted. "I'll go do that." He stuffed the recorded back into his pocket and left the office and the Official who sat there with a look of smug satisfaction on his face. That was okay. Darien was more than a touch satisfied himself. This deal would allow him, and Alyx, the freedom to do their jobs without worrying about the manipulations of the Official impacting their personal lives, and that could only be a good thing.

With a lightness of heart that hadn't been there for a long, _long_ time Darien made his way down to the Keep to give Claire the news.

.

The hardest part of his day came that evening when he arrived at Alyx's place. He had planned to have home court advantage when he told her of his decision, but she had offered to cook whereas he'd had come up with nothing more exciting than take out for dinner, as his cupboards had been surprisingly bare when he'd gotten up that morning. Her cooking trumped quality take out any day of the week, so he would just have to screw up his courage a bit tighter than he'd originally planned. He deeply feared she'd be upset with him for his choice... His choice. He needed to remember that and remind her of that fact if necessary. His life, his choice, even if it meant staying at the Agency for the next decade. A decade. Could he last that long? Would the gland go insane long before then and try to kill him from the inside out?

He mentally shook his head. It didn't matter. He'd made his choice and he'd live with it. Live being the operative word here. No more surviving day to day, no more going along to get along. Oh no, he would dive in head first and make the most of every single day, even... especially those that made him want to walk away. He'd get through those, find that damned silver lining, and enjoy every moment of peace and joy that he would be granted. And he knew most of those would happen because of the red head standing in the kitchen doing something miraculous involving herbs and spices and a formally living chicken.

"Hey, sweets," he called out, wanting to make certain she knew he had indeed entered her apartment, though given the door had been open, she had probably been aware of his arrival since he pulled into the garage.

"Hey, bub. Gimme a sec to get the bird in the oven and you can have my full attention." She tossed a brilliant smile his way, looking much better now that her job had been officially completed and she'd had a few hours to wind down. She and Richards had spent several hours behind closed doors, probably discussing his future before she'd returned to her jarheads - this time without the costume - and finished the work in one monster forty hour sprint. They'd been less than happy to learn that she'd not only caught their hacker, but had made him disappear, especially when they'd been told that they had no idea who he'd been working for. Or that the computer the program had been on had eaten itself when she'd tried to break in, making it completely unrecoverable.

Lies, very huge lies that Alyx had told them with a straight face, with the Official by her side to back her up. The military mooks hadn't been happy, but as she had technically completed the job she'd been hired to do for them, which had nothing to do with catching the hacker, or recovering the program used, kept their bitching to a minimum. Well, that and the threat that they'd never be allowed to hire Alyx again if they didn't shut up about it. That had been effective and they'd left with their tails tucked firmly between their legs.

They now had a couple days to relax, finish up any paperwork related to the cases before moving on to the next.

She finished dressing the bird, washed her hands, then slid the pan into the oven and set the timer for an hour. She spent a couple minutes wiping down the counters and making certain everything was as it should be before turning her full attention to him. He leaned back against the counter, watching her, wondering if she were finding things to do to avoid the conversation he wanted to have. Did he really feel that nervous to her? Was he? While concerned about her response to his news, he had no doubts about it.

"Drink?" she offered, heading for the fridge.

"Sure," he agreed, allowing her to play hostess if that would make her more comfortable. Once she had her head buried in the fridge, looking for the beer she'd hidden in there for him, he said. "Remember when you said you back me in my decision on the gland no questions asked?"

"Yes," she answered as she backed out with two bottles held in one hand by the crossed necks. "And I will." She popped both tops, without a bottle opener, and handed one to him.

He took a long drink before continuing. "Well, I've made a decision. Made it a while ago, actually, but we were in the middle of our cases and I didn't want to screw them up."

She set her bottle on the counter without having taken a sip. "I know," she finally said. "About a week ago, yes?"

Darien nodded. "How'd you know?"

She shrugged, ducking her head down to look at her bare toes, the nail polish a dark purple today. "You stopped feeling all torn up inside."

Huh. Guess that was true enough, not that the decision had made much of a difference, he'd still had that dream every night for the last week. The urgency of it not lessened one whit even with his choice clearly made. "So you've known for a week and didn't say anything?" He wasn't quite sure what to make of that and it must have shown in his tone.

"Darien, I may have known you'd made a decision, but I have no idea what it is. I wasn't about to be presumptuous." She met his eyes, her look carefully controlled. "I figured you'd tell me when you were ready."

Duh. Plus, it wasn't as if they had spent a whole lot of time together that didn't involve work the last week. "Well, after much consideration... I've decided to stay."

She smiled and said just one word, "Cool."

But with that word came an unexpected rush of emotions, confusion counter-pointed by happiness, and he understood both. Confusion as to why he'd chosen to stay and happiness that he had. She locked it down quickly, probably not wanting her reaction to influence his now. She'd back him on it, with no questions, even if she would always wonder why. He knew that would be one question she wouldn't ask. Not now, anyway, and he appreciated that even as it bothered him, if only slightly. Not that he could tell her why. That prohibition against talking to her about the dream still in full force, even now. He could feel it, an odd sense of dread should he bring the subject up here and now, even with his decision to stay out in the open. That was all right, though, he knew what was coming and that was enough... for now.

"Can't say for how long, might change my mind in a few weeks if the work gets boring..."

"And I'll back you then too," she told him moving forward to stand just out of reach. "It's your life, Dare, you need to do what is right for you."

"I am, I promise you that." He set the bottle down and closed the distance between them. "I need you to be part of that life," he told her, as close as he could come to telling her how he felt about her.

"For as long as you want me," she told him, and not for the first time. "I just want you happy, D, and if you are happy here, I'll doing everything I can to see that it continues until you are ready to move on."

Damn. How could it be that she always managed to say just the right thing at just the right moment? He'd hate it if it didn't make him so happy. She was his, and would be for as long as he wanted her. And couldn't imagine not wanting her. "Thank you," he managed, feeling truly choked up for the first time in ages. Was there anything she wouldn't do for him? He didn't think so, and he was beginning to realize the same held true for him. He set his forehead against hers and did his poor best to let her feel what her statement meant to him, allowing his emotions to express what he couldn't seem put into words.

She shivered in his hold and allowed that carefully crafted wall in her mind to fall apart allowing him to glimpse her feelings for him and her reaction to his emotions. He closed his eyes to better feel, neither of them moving for long minutes as they took the time to get reacquainted with each other after long weeks of hit or miss moments alone. This wasn't about sex, so much as just renewing that connection between them that had formed at their first meeting.

When he finally moved to kiss her, she was more than ready, responding to his need to connect physically with the very same need.

He pulled away to look into her eyes, that sensation of freefall taking hold as he gazed into their glorious depths. He wanted to say something profound, something that would make this moment a memorable one, but she got there first.

"So, is this something that should be commemorated in some way? I could call Bobby and Claire. I've more than enough food for all of us."

Darien chuckled, in some ways relieved she'd lightened the mood. They spent far too much time dealing with the serious, that he could understand her wanting to avoid it in their personal lives, especially where they crossed paths. "No, I think this celebration should be one-on-one from the get go."

Her eyes twinkled in mischief. "All right, we have about twenty minutes before I have to get back to work on dinner. Would you care for dessert first?"

Oh, hell yes, but he'd wait and savor the moment when it came. "Nah. How about I help get dinner ready, instead?"

If she were surprised by his answer, she made certain to not let it show. "Okay. I think I can find something for you to do."

"Oh, I'm sure you can," he responded leaning in to kiss her lightly, "but dinner first, darlin'."

She grinned and slipped away. "Just for that you can peel the potatoes."

"Your garlic potatoes?"

"Uh huh," she answered as she produced a bag of oversized spuds.

"Hell yes." He stepped over to the counter as she laughed.

This... this moment, them together doing the most mundane of chores, was worth more than gold to him.

The entire evening went like that, both of them simply being themselves and enjoying each other's company. Eventually, their needs turned from ones of comfort to those of desire and they found themselves in her bed, which Darien had to admit really was much more comfortable than his, with no clothes and all the time he could wish to explore every inch of her skin.

Sleep came, as it inevitably did, and for the first time in long, _long_ weeks, he did not have the dream.

_._

_._

_Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,_

_And sorry I could not travel both_

_And be one traveler, long I stood_

_And looked down one as far as I could_

_To where it bent in the undergrowth;_

_Then took the other, as just as fair,_

_And having perhaps the better claim_

_Because it was grassy and wanted wear,_

_Though as for that the passing there_

_Had worn them really about the same,_

_And both that morning equally lay_

_In leaves no step had trodden black._

_Oh, I marked the first for another day!_

_Yet knowing how way leads on to way_

_I doubted if I should ever come back._

_I shall be telling this with a sigh_

_Somewhere ages and ages hence:_

_Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,_

_I took the one less traveled by,_

_And that has made all the difference. _

_The Road Not Taken_

_by Robert Frost_

_._

_._

_._

_finis_


End file.
